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Mission record

Hiten

Also known as Muses-A

Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science, U of Tokyo · Launched

Explore trajectory

Completed · Success

A Japanese engineering mission that tested aerobraking and lunar swingby techniques and released a small orbiter into lunar orbit.

Destinations
Moon
Launch vehicle
M-3SII
Launch site
Uchinoura Space Center, Japan
Countries
Japan
Mission types
Flyby, Orbiter

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Hiten launched from Kagoshima Space Center into a highly elliptical Earth orbit

  2. Deployment

    The small Hagoromo spacecraft was released as Hiten approached its first lunar flyby

    Moon

  3. Flyby

    Hiten reached its closest lunar flyby distance of 16,472.4 km

    Moon

  4. Milestone

    Hiten flew into the Earth's upper atmosphere at 125.5 km, the first use of aerobraking near escape velocity

    Earth

  5. Orbit insertion

    Most of Hiten's remaining fuel was used to put it into lunar orbit

    Moon

  6. Impact

    Hiten was crashed into the lunar surface

    The page gives two different impact times and locations, citing Uesugi 1996: 18:03:25.7 UT at 34.0 S, 55.3 E, and 18:08:45 UT at 34.3 S, 55.6 E. The event is recorded at day precision rather than choosing between them.

    Moon

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Hiten · Spacecraft

    Destinations: Moon

Trajectory record

Trajectory dataset not yet available

No verified trajectory dataset is committed for this mission, so Mission Atlas renders no path.

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through August 27, 2026