The Japanese space agency's KAGUYA lunar orbiter ended its 21-month mission with a planned crash into the Moon on 10 June.

Formally known as SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer), the mission was launched in September 2007. The orbiter gathered detailed geological information about the Moon, mapping its gravitational field and taking high-definition video images.

As Nature went to press, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was scheduled to launch on 18 June. Together with India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, which launched in October 2008, it will attempt to spot water ice at the Moon's poles (see Nature 459, 758–759; 2009).