Exploration of the Moon with the Hiten spacecraft, becoming the third country to place an object in orbit around the Moon. The spacecraft released the Hagoromo probe into lunar orbit, but the transmitter failed, thereby preventing further scientific use of the spacecraft. In September 2007, Japan launched the SELENE spacecraft, with the objectives "to obtain scientific data of the lunar origin and evolution and to develop the technology for the future lunar exploration", according to the JAXA official website. The European Space Agency launched a small, low-cost lunar orbital probe called SMART 1 on September 27, 2003. SMART 1's primary goal was to take
Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway to go to the moon and back during the Apollo program" and that a "reusable lunar lander could be refueled from a depot on the lunar surface and left in a parking orbit between missions without the need for a big, complex space station." Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway The Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) is a proposal for a lunar-orbit space station intended to serve as an all-in-one solar-powered communications hub, science laboratory, short-term habitation module, and holding area for rovers and other robots. The science disciplines to be studied on the Gateway are expected to include planetary science, astrophysics, Earth observations,