1986–2000: Stations, Global Partnerships and Flagship Observatories
Hiten
Japan’s first lunar probe and first Asian lunar mission.
Era 3 of 6 · full record in the catalog
- Launch
- year known only: 1990
- Lead / partner
- Japan
- Target
- Moon
- Category
- Lunar orbiter / technology
- Status
- Partial success
- Vehicle
- unknown
- Mass
- unknown
- Orbit / trajectory
- unknown
Why it happened
Hiten flew during 1986–2000: Stations, Global Partnerships and Flagship Observatories, as part of Japan's work toward moon. A sourced write-up of the context around this mission is still on the editorial queue; nothing here is invented to fill the gap.
The mission
The full narrative of this mission is pending research and writing. What is recorded so far: Japan’s first lunar probe and first Asian lunar mission.
Results
Japan’s first lunar probe and first Asian lunar mission.
Related missions
Sources & image credits
- Vasukrishnan57, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · license: cc-by-sa-4.0 (source, checked 2026-08-23)
- Mission record: AntarikshPedia canonical dataset (data-sources/missions_timeline.md)
- Specifications reference: NASA NSSDCA Master Catalog
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