A

David

Darling

Hiten

Hiten

Hiten was a Japanese lunar probe, launched by ISAS (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science), that made multiple flybys of the Moon from an extremely elliptical Earth orbit and released Hagoromo, a smaller satellite, into lunar orbit. Hiten itself was put into lunar orbit in February 1992 and crashed into the Moon on 10 April 1993. It was the first lunar probe not launched by the United States or Russia. Hiten, which means "celestial maiden," was known before launch as MUSES-A.

 

launch date Jan 24, 1990
launch vehicle M-3S
launch site Kagoshima
orbit 262 × 285,183 km × 30.6°
mass 185 kg