Sep 14 2007
From The Space Library
Four years behind its original schedule, JAXA successfully launched Kaguya, also called the Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE), aboard an H-2A solid-fuel rocket from Tanegashima Island at 1:31 (UT). The 2.9-tonne (2,900-kilogram or 3.2-ton) lunar orbiter carried various instruments that would enable it to obtain detailed data about the lunar topography and surface-mineral composition. JAXA had promoted the mission as the most significant lunar expedition since America’s Apollo program of the 1960s and early 1970s, in terms of its scope and ambition. JAXA claimed that the mission would outpace the former Soviet Union’s Luna program, NASA’s Clementine mission of 1994, and NASA’s Lunar Prospector mission of 1998–1999. Kaguya’s launch occurred at a critical time for the Japanese space agency, which was facing accusations that it lacked a vision capable of challenging the ambition of the People’s Republic of China to lead East Asia in space exploration. At the time of the launch, JAXA also lacked popular and political support. Japan’s citizens had such poor regard for the civilian space program that JAXA had to negotiate with the local fishermen of Tanegashima for acceptable launch times. Because September was one of two launch windows that Tanegashima fishermen’s unions had offered JAXA, Kaguya’s launch took place during typhoon season. Kazuto Suzuki, a specialist in global space issues at Tsukuba University in Tokyo, explained that JAXA was only beginning to realize that, to enhance the political importance of Japan’s space initiatives, it would need to market Japan’s space program to appeal to the Japanese public.
Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 647, 1 October 2007, http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/spacewarn/spx647.html (accessed 4 August 2010); Bruce Wallace, “After Long Delay, Japan Launches Lunar Orbiter,” Los Angeles Times, 14 September 2007; Associated Press, “Japan’s Space Agency Launches Lunar Probe,” 14 September 2007.
ESA and Russia successfully launched Foton M-3 aboard a Russian Soyuz-U rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:00 (UT). The 6.4-tonne (6,400-kilogram or 7-ton) satellite carried a payload of approximately 40 European experiments, including a 35-kilogram (77-pound) student-built module called the Young Engineers Satellite 2 (YES2), which the Foton craft would deploy to orbit Earth for 12 days. When the orbiting period had ended, the YES2 mission would use an experimental tether to return the picosatellite and reentry vehicle Fotino to Earth on 25 September. ESA and Russia had planned the tether-technology demonstration to test and produce data related to “space mail,” a concept developed to enable the return of material from space without the use of conventional chemical propulsion.
Spacewarn Bulletin, no. 647; European Space Agency (ESA), “Young Engineers’ Satellite 2; Mission Facts,” 5 September 2007, http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/YES/SEMLRV8OY2F_0.html (accessed 5 August 2010); ESA, “Focus On; Foton-M3 Mission To Launch European Experiments,” 11 September 2007, http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMN5ZMPQ5F_FeatureWeek_0.html (accessed 5 August 2010).
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