Comparison of Asian national space programs to fuel future energy demands in Asia. All three main Asian space powers plan to send men to the Moon in the distant future and have already sent lunar probes. Japan was the first Asian country to launch a lunar probe. The Hiten (Japanese: "flying angel") spacecraft (known before the launch as MUSES-A), built by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan, was launched on 24 January 1990. In many ways, the mission did not go as was planned. Kaguya, the second Japanese lunar orbiter spacecraft, was launched on 14 September 2007. China launched its first lunar probe,
Explorer 43 Explorer 43 Explorer 43, also called as IMP-I and IMP 6, was a U.S. satellite launched as part of Explorers program. Explorer 43 as launched on March 13, 1971 on Cape Canaveral, with an Delta rocket. Explorer 43 was the sixth satellite of the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform. Explorer 43 continued the study, begun by earlier IMPs, of the interplanetary and outer magnetospheric regions by measuring energetic particles, plasma, and electric and magnetic fields. A radioastronomy experiment was also included in the spacecraft payload. The 16-sided spacecraft was high by in diameter. The spacecraft spin axis was normal to the ecliptic