Kaguya: mission and targets
Data as of 2026-10-04
Dates declared by the archive
- Project start
- September 14, 2007
- Declared end
- June 10, 2009
The start the archive declares is the start of the project, not the launch, and an end it does not declare does not mean the mission is still running.
In Galaxy
Targets you can open in 3D:
A declared target is what the archive files the mission’s data under, not a record of observation.
Description published by the archive
SELENE, Japan's second lunar probe, was renamed Kaguya (Moon Princess) after launch following a public poll. Its mission aimed to orbit the Moon and gather data on its origins, geological evolution, and surface environment, while also conducting radio science experiments. The mission included two small sub-satellites, originally named Relay Satellite (Rstar) and VRAD satellite (Vstar), which were renamed Okina and Ouna, meaning "honorable elderly man" and "honorable elderly woman."
Quoted in English, as the archive publishes it, read on October 4, 2026.
Source
Identifier in the archive, which is its citation: urn:nasa:pds:context:investigation:mission.kaguya
NASA Planetary Data System, PDS Registry, investigation context products. Dates and targets read on September 29, 2026; how to cite the archive: https://pds.nasa.gov/datastandards/citing/