Kaguya: both mini-satellites deployed and renamed

JAXA announced today the successful deployment of the second of Kaguya's two mini-satellites. And, in what seems to be a traditional act of the Japanese space program following the "launch" of a spacecraft, they have given "nicknames" of mythological origin to the two spacecraft: Okina and Ouna. Okina and Ouna, meaning "honorable elderly man" and "honorable elderly woman," refer to the old couple who adopted and raised the moon princess Kaguya in the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. Sometimes these mythological names come to supplant the original name -- as happened to Hayabusa (formerly known as MUSES-C) -- but sometimes the former, technical names remain in common use. Given the choice, I prefer the mythological names, so I'll probably stick with those.

As before, they released a couple of onboard camera photos of the successful deployment, so I assembled the four images into an animation.

Also, something else to keep your eyes out for: Chang'E 1 is supposed to be launching some time this month, probably toward the end of the month. When I hear any news about this mission I'll post it.