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Mission record

Kaguya

Also known as Selenological and Engineering Explorer, SELENE

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency · Launched

Explore trajectory

Completed · Success

A Japanese lunar orbiter that mapped the Moon's topography and gravity, accompanied by two small relay and radio-science subsatellites.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
H-2A
Launch site
Tanegashima, Japan
Countries
Japan
Mission types
Orbiter

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Kaguya launched on an H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Space Center

  2. Deployment

    Solar array deployment confirmed by telemetry

  3. Deployment

    High-gain antenna deployment confirmed by telemetry

  4. Orbit insertion

    Kaguya carried out its first lunar orbit injection into a 101 x 11741 km orbit

    Moon

  5. Deployment

    The relay satellite Okina was released into a 100 x 2400 km polar orbit

    Moon

  6. Deployment

    The VRAD satellite Ouna was released into a 100 x 800 km orbit

    Moon

  7. Milestone

    The 10 month nominal science mission began

    Moon

  8. Milestone

    Kaguya began operations in its 50 km altitude phase

    ISAS/JAXA reports the 50 km altitude phase from February 1, 2009. The source gives a phase date, not an exact maneuver epoch.

    Moon

  9. Impact

    Okina impacted the Moon

    JAXA gives 19:46 JST on 12 February, corresponding to 10:46 UTC. The source orbit table ends about 14 hours earlier, so the impact phase has no published state path.

    Moon

  10. Milestone

    Kaguya began the 10–30 km low-perilune phase

    ISAS/JAXA reports perilune altitudes of 10–30 km from April 16, 2009. The source gives a phase date, not an exact maneuver epoch.

    Moon

  11. Impact

    Kaguya ended its mission as planned, impacting the Moon in darkness so the flash could be observed from Earth

    Moon

  12. Mission end

    Ouna radio transmissions stopped, ending subsatellite operations

    JAXA reports about 21:08 JST (12:08 UTC). The original Vstar orbit table stops four printed minutes earlier; radio shutdown is not an impact event.

    Moon

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Kaguya · Orbiter

    Destinations: Moon

  • Okina (Rstar) · Orbiter

    Destinations: Moon

  • Ouna (Vstar) · Orbiter

    Destinations: Moon

Trajectory record

Time-dependent navigation trajectory

Source states place the model at the selected time. Reconstructed flight, estimates, predictions and historical mission plans are identified by interval; gaps remain visible.

J2000 · Sun-centered display · positions interpolated between source states

Coverage: October 16, 2007 to June 29, 2009

Source records and sampling assumptions are retained with the repository data. Model attitude and surface appearance are illustrative.

  • Kaguya main orbiter: Physically reconstructed based on publicly available data · JAXA SELENE/RISE and NAIF SPICE · Moon-centered J2000 · source gaps retained · October 20, 2007 to June 10, 2009
  • Ouna (Vstar): Physically reconstructed based on publicly available data · JAXA RISE lunar orbit states · 2009 clock correction and source gaps retained · October 16, 2007 to June 29, 2009
  • Okina (Rstar): Physically reconstructed based on publicly available data · JAXA RISE lunar orbit states · 2009 clock correction and source gaps retained · October 31, 2007 to February 11, 2009

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through October 11, 2026