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
March 2007 lunar eclipse March 2007 lunar eclipse A total lunar eclipse took place on March 3, 2007, the first of two eclipses in 2007. The moon entered the penumbral shadow at 20:18 UTC, and the umbral shadow at 21:30 UTC. The total phase lasted between 22:44 UTC and 23:58 UTC with a distinctive brick-red shade (L=3 to L=4 on the Danjon scale). The moon left the umbra shadow at 01:11 UTC and left the penumbra shadow at 02:24 UTC 2007-03-04. The second lunar eclipse of 2007 occurred on August 28. The previous lunar eclipse on September 7, 2006 was partial. This eclipse is