JAXA / NHK

Most people are familiar with the Apollo images of the Moon, showing astronauts at work and play on the lunar surface. But those photos often don’t entirely do justice to the Moon’s stark beauty, and some of the most amazing images of Earth’s companion come not from the surface, but above. Perhaps no spacecraft has better captured this than one launched by Japan nearly a decade ago.

Beginning in October, 2007, Japan’s Kayuga spacecraft spent the better part of two years in a polar orbit around the Moon, including passes from as close as 100km. As part of its payload, the spacecraft carried two 2.2 megapixel CCD HDTV color cameras, one a telephoto and one a wide-angle. These cameras returned the first high-definition video of the Moon back to Earth.