Kaguya Launched On This Day!

Japan launched its space craft called the kaguya spacecraft and it was September 13 that day. September has been remarkably one of the richest months for space history. A Japanese space craft touted on this day in 2007 to be the largest of all that are aimed at the moon since NASA's Apollo era rocketed into space.
The 3 tone orbiter rode its H-2A rocket towards moon at about 9:31 p.m. though it was Friday morning at island-based Tanegashima Space Center in Japan launch site. The probe slated to a circle and to the Earth twice before beginning a five-day trek towards the moon, said JAXA which is the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Formally known as SELENE it was the short form for SELenological and ENgineering Explorer, studies tell that Kaguya carries 14 science instruments and two small microsatellites so that it can make detailed maps of the moon's surface.
"All of the data which will be gathered by Kaguya will bring us new scientific knowledge for further researches of the origin and evolution regarding the moon," said JAXA's SELENE project manager Yoshisada Takizawa on the agency's Web site.
Kaguya is named after Kaguya-hime, which is a moon princess in a well-known Japanese folktale, and it also is carrying names and messages from people on Earth that is part of JAXA's "Wish upon the Moon" campaign. The probe is also incorporated with a high-definition camera that is designed to record still and also video images of the Earth when it rises above the surface of moon.
Kaguya was launched from Tanegashima Space Center on a Japanese H-IIA rocket and it looped around the Earth twice before heading towards the moon.
It is also reported that after a 20-day journey, it arrived in lunar orbitals. The mission majorly included three spacecrafts: a main orbiter, a small yet worth communications satellite, and a third small satellite for mapping the moon's gravitational field.

By: Prerana Sharma
Content: https://www.space.com/39251-on-this-day-in-space.html