The Kaguya probe, named after a fairytale princess, is on the most extensive mission to investigate the moon since the US Apollo human spaceflight programme in the 1960s and 1970s, according to Japan's space agency.

After it blasted into space last month on a domestically developed rocket from southern Japan, the lunar explorer orbited the Earth twice before firing its engine to change course.

"The satellite successfully entered the moon's orbit. We are glad that we achieved one of the big challenges in this mission," said Tatsuo Oshima, a spokesman from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Japan kick-started an Asian moon race on September 14 with the launch of its lunar orbiter, aiming to restore some pride in its troubled space programme.

Japan has been expanding its space operations and has set a goal of sending an astronaut to the moon by 2020.

China, which sent a man into space for the first time in 2003, plans to launch its own moon probe before the end of the year, followed by India in the first half of 2008.

The moon, at a distance of about 380,000 kilometres (235,600 miles) from Earth, remains a puzzle to scientists, with questions persisting about its origin, the minerals it contains and whether it has water to support human life.

Japan's 55-billion-yen (478-million-dollar) lunar probe, aiming to collect data for research on the moon's origin and evolution, will orbit 100 kilometres above the moon.

Once it gets close to the moon it will start observation of land features and study gravitational fields, the JAXA spokesman said.

"Our next challenge is a successful launch of observation activities with cameras and radars functioning normally," he said.

Japan's next mission in 2012 will aim at landing a robot on the moon's surface, followed by one in 2018 that will seek to return successfully to earth, according to Manabu Kato, chief scientist overseeing the Kaguya project.

Human exploration could be followed by human colonies on the moon, he said recently at a space conference in India.

Japan faced an embarrassing failure in November 2003, when it had to destroy a rocket carrying a spy satellite 10 minutes after lift-off because a booster failed to separate.

While the achievements of space programmes run by China, Japan and India are modest in comparison to the milestones set by the United States and former Soviet Union, some experts believe it is only a matter of time before Asia leads the field.

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