Posted: Fri, Oct 5, 2007, 8:27 AM ET (1227 GMT)
A Japanese lunar probe launched last month has entered orbit around the Moon, the Japanese space agency JAXA announced Friday. The Kaguya spacecraft fired its thrusters on Thursday in a maneuver that put the spacecraft into an elliptical orbit ranging from 100 to over 11,700 km above the lunar surface. The spacecraft will circularize its orbit over the next two weeks and release two small subsatellites. The spacecraft, launched September 14, is billed as the most ambitious lunar mission since the end of the Apollo program 35 years ago. Kaguya features 15 instruments to study the lunar surface and the space environment in its vicinity, including experiments designed to look for traces of water ice thought to exist at the poles.
