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 47 Explorer 47 Explorer 47, also known IMP-7 and Interplanetary Monitoring Platform IMP-H, was an American satellite launched as part of Explorers program. Explorer 47 as launched on 23 September 1972 on Cape Canaveral, Florida, U.S., with an Delta rocket. Explorer 47 was the seventh satellite of the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform. Explorer 47 continued the study begun by earlier IMP spacecraft of the interplanetary and magnetotail regions from a nearly circular orbit, near 37 earth radii. This 16 sided drum-shaped spacecraft was high and in diameter. It was designed to measure energetic particles, plasma and electric and magnetic fields. The spin