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Japan's lunar probe has successfully reached an orbit around the moon in a first for the Asian country, space agency officials said on Friday.
The 32 billion yen ($363.35 million) Selenological and Engineering Explorer - or SELENE - is the largest lunar mission since the US Apollo programme, outpacing the former Soviet Union's Luna program and Nasa's Clementine and Lunar Prospector projects.
The mission, launched last month, involves placing the main satellite in orbit at an altitude of about 100 kilometres and deploying two smaller satellites in polar orbits, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.
