Clementine

A lunar mission carried out by the US Department of Defense, which returned a large body of scientific data, as well as testing space hardware. Launched on 25 January 1994, it spent two months in orbit around the Moon. The intention had been for Clementine to travel on to a flyby of the asteroid Geographos. However, that second part of the mission was cancelled after the spacecraft malfunctioned on 5 May. Clementine began the task of global digital imaging of the Moon, with ultraviolet-visible and near-infrared cameras. It secured better geological mapping than any previous lunar mission.