The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) confirms that its Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE; KAGUYA in Japanese) successfully performed its lunar orbit injection maneuver (LOI1) at 6:20AM on 4 October 2007 (Japan Standard Time, JST). It is currently in an orbit with an apogee of 11,741 km, a perigee of 101 km, and a period of 16 hours 42 minutes, though JAXA plans to circularize the orbit near the perigee in the coming weeks.
The SELENE is a lunar exploration satellite (Japan’s first to orbit the Moon) that was launched on an H-IIA rocket on 14 September 2007 from the Tanegashima Space Center. The major objectives of the mission are “to obtain scientific data of the lunar origin and evolution and to develop the technology for the future lunar exploration. SELENE consists of a main orbiting satellite at about 100km altitude and two small satellites (Relay Satellite and VRAD Satellite) in polar orbit. The orbiters will carry instruments for scientific investigation of the Moon, on the Moon, and from the Moon.” The main orbiter mission is expected to last about one year.