Japan Launches (Unmanned) Moon Mission
Japan's space agency took a big leap forward in Asia's undeclared space race Friday with its successful launch of a probe for the largest mission to the moon since the U.S. Apollo flights.
The Selenological and Engineering Explorer - or SELENE - probe was launched aboard one of the space program's mainstay H-2A rockets from its launch-pad on Tanegashima, the remote island where the agency's space center is located.
Footage of the launch carried live over the Internet showed the rocket racing upward through slightly hazy skies to the southeast. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said the craft's engines and navigation systems appeared to be operating normally.
"We're very pleased with how the flight is proceeding so far. The satellite has separated from the rocket as expected," said JAXA spokesman Hiroshi Sekine.
The 32-billion yen ($279 million) SELENE is slated to orbit twice around the Earth before proceeding to the moon, a journey expected to take about three weeks.
The launch came four years behind JAXA's original schedule. Japan launched a moon probe in 1990, but that was a flyby mission, unlike SELENE, which is intended to orbit the moon.
It canceled another moon shot, LUNAR-A, that was to have been launched in 2004 but had been repeatedly postponed because of mechanical and fiscal problems.
A mid-August launch date for the SELENE also had to be scrubbed after some improperly installed components were discovered.
The SELENE project is the largest lunar mission since the U.S. Apollo program in terms of overall scope and ambition, outpacing the former Soviet Union's Luna program and NASA's Clementine and Lunar Prospector projects, according to JAXA.
Japan is not alone in Asia in its attempts to return to Earth's closest neighbor.
China also has plans to send a probe to the moon, the Chang'e 1, and is rumored to be planning to launch it this month. The country's minister of defense and technology told CCTV in July all was ready for a launch "by the end of the year."
Officials have tried to downplay the importance of who beats the other to blastoff, though JAXA officials say their technology is superior.
The SELENE's mission involves placing the main satellite in orbit at an altitude of about 60 miles and deploying the two smaller satellites in polar orbits. Researchers will use data gathered by the probes to study the moon's origin and evolution.
The main orbiter will remain in position for about a year.
China's Chang'e 1 orbiter will use stereo cameras and X-ray spectrometers to map three-dimensional images of the lunar surface and study its dust.
Beijing hopes to retrieve samples from the moon in later missions, according to the project's Web page, and China's official Xinhua News Agency has reported a manned probe could come within 15 years. Japan is also considering a manned mission by 2025.