Hiten Mission

The Hiten mission (formerly the MUSES-A) was the first space engineering experimental satellite of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and was launched from Kagoshima Space Center (JKSC) in Japan in January 1990. After the successful insertion into a highly elliptical orbit around the Earth, the Hiten mission carried out several objectives to demonstrate space technologies for swing-by (or gravity assist) techniques and insertion of a sub-satellite into orbital space around the Moon. The results from these engineering missions have also led to follow-on missions, including aerobraking techniques and an excursion to the Lagrange points of the Earth-Moon system.