January 24

On this day - January 24th 1990 - Hiten lunar probe launched 

The Hiten spacecraft was built by the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science(ISAS). It was the first lunar probe built by any other state than USA or Russia. On its first swing-by Hiten released a smaller orbiter called Hagoromo into orbit. The orbiter failed to transmit home but it was visually confirmed to be in orbit from Earth. After the eight swing-by Hiten successfully used the aerobraking technique. It was the first deep space probe to do such a maneuver. Aerobraking is a spaceflight maneuver that reduces the high point of an elliptical orbit (apoapsis) by flying the vehicle through the atmosphere at the low point of the orbit(periapsis). The resulting drag slows the spacecraft. When the main mission was over Hiten was placed in lunar orbit and then deliberately crashed into the moon on April 10th 1993.