"A Big Step" For JAXA

Japan is now one step ahead of China and India in an increasingly-heated Asian space race. Japanese officials say their first satellite is now orbiting the moon. 

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) tells The Associated Press the probe was sent into lunar orbit early Friday, local time, after completing a complicated navigational maneuver. The probe will gradually move into orbit closer to the surface to the moon before conducting a year-long observational mission.

Project manager Yoshisada Takizawa says, "We believe this is a big step... Everything is going well and we are confident."

As ANN reported last month, it's been a tough road for the "Kaguya" probe, which is named for a beautiful moon princess in Japanese folklore. The mission has been plagued with technical problems for several years.

So plagued, the mission even faced cancellation earlier this year.

Japanese officials claim the $279 million Selenological and Engineering Explorer -- or SELENE -- is the largest lunar mission since the US Apollo program in terms of overall scope and ambition. If the price tag is accurate, the project far outpaces the former Soviet Union's Luna program, and NASA's Clementine and Lunar Prospector projects.

FMI: www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html