2007 in spaceflight Moon. Japan's Kaguya orbiter, along with the smaller Okina and Ouna relay spacecraft, was launched on 14 September. The spacecraft entered Selenocentric orbit on 3 October. China launched its first Lunar probe, Chang'e 1, on 24 October, with the spacecraft entering Selenocentric orbit on 5 November. In 2009, two satellites launched into highly elliptical Earth orbits in 2007 as part of the THEMIS mission were also sent to the Moon. They are expected to arrive in October 2010. In August, the NASA Phoenix spacecraft was launched towards Mars, followed by the Dawn mission to the Asteroid belt in September. Cassini
Explorer 10 Explorer 10 Explorer 10 (also known as Explorer X or P14) was an American Earth-orbital satellite that investigated Earth's magnetic fields and nearby plasma. Launched on March 25, 1961, it was an early mission in the Explorer program and was the first satellite to measure the "shock wave" generated by a solar flare. The objective was to investigate the magnetic fields and plasma as the spacecraft passed through Earth's magnetosphere and into cislunar space. The satellite was launched into a highly-elliptical orbit and was spin-stabilized with a spin period of 0.548 s. The direction of its spin vector was 71