Japan's first lunar probe, the world's most extensive mission to the moon in decades, has gone into full operation on schedule, the space agency announced Wednesday. The Kaguya orbiter completed a two-month initial phase to inspect the functioning of all the equipment before starting its main mission on Friday last week, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.
"Normal operations will continue for 10 months to collect data for lunar and other research," JAXA said in a brief statement.
While the operation began on schedule, JAXA said it was still ironing out some technical issues to ensure the receipt of data from the orbiter.
The 55-billion-yen (478-million-dollar) lunar probe is on the most extensive mission to investigate the moon since the US Apollo programme in the 1960s and 1970s.
The satellite has sent many images of the Earth for research and general public viewing, most notably the first high-definition image of the Earth rising, showing a crystal clear blue planet emerging from the moon's horizon.
The Kaguya, named after a fairytale princess, released two baby satellites after being launched from southern Japan on September 14.
The baby satellites will be used to study the gravity fields of the moon, among other projects, the space agency said.
Japan has been expanding its space operations and has set a goal of sending an astronaut to the moon by 2020.
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