Japan Launches Its First Satellite Aimed at Moon

Japan’s first lunar probe lifted off today, billowing clouds of smoke and carrying Japanese hopes of becoming the third nation to reach the moon.

Launch officials said the unmanned Muses-A satellite separated from the rocket several minutes into the flight as planned.

Mission chief Hiroki Matsuo said data from the satellite, picked up by tracking stations in California and Australia, showed it was orbiting the Earth at a maximum distance of 186,000 miles, compared with an eventual goal of 310,000 miles.

The slender M3S-2 rocket disappeared into the night sky over the Pacific from its launch pad nestled between mountains on Japan’s southern coast.

The rocket blasted off on schedule at 8:46 p.m. (3:46 a.m. PST).

If successful, the Muses-A satellite will be the first spacecraft to visit the moon since an unmanned Soviet vehicle landed on its surface in 1976. Only the United States and the Soviet Union have sent spacecraft to the moon.

The three-stage red-and-silver M3S-2 rocket, which cannot lift much more than its 400-pound payload, carried Muses-A into an elliptical orbit that is to bring it to within about 10,000 miles of the moon in eight weeks.

Just before crossing the moon’s path, a smaller satellite will break off the Muses-A and go into lunar orbit and send data to the larger satellite on temperatures and electrical fields.