WORLD BRIEFING / JAPAN
Japan’s first lunar probe made a controlled crash landing on the moon, successfully completing a 19-month mission to study the Earth’s nearest neighbor, Japan’s space agency said.
The remotely controlled satellite, named after the folklore princess Kaguya, had been orbiting the moon to map its surface and study its mineral distribution and gravity levels.
“The mission was a success. Thanks to Kaguya, we will have a very detailed map of the lunar surface,” said spokesman Shinichi Sobue of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The Japanese space agency will analyze data sent by Kaguya and plans to publish the results online in November.
The $560-million lunar mission launched in September 2007 is the largest in scope and ambition since the U.S. Apollo program of the 1960s and ‘70s, Sobue said.
“With data from Kaguya, we hope to shed light on the evolution of the moon,” Sobue said.
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