Hmmm, "Kaguya".... That's the name of that little mistress from the Kyoto House in Code Geass but no, this isn't what this post is about.

Nicknamed "Kaguya", the name of the princess that ascended to the moon in a Japanese folklore story, the "SELENE" lunar probe was launched into space on an H-IIA Rocket No. 13 at 10:31 JST today. Weighing at 13 tonnes, Kaguya will be orbiting the earth twice before it is propelled by its engines to travel the 20 day, 380,000km journey to the moon where it will hover 100km above the surface. Space agency JAXA is then to collect data using Kaguya's 14 sensors in an effort to learn about the moon's origins and evolution.

You can read the article on BBC News and Asahi. More information, images, videos and even a live webcam of Tanegashima can be viewed on the JAXA site.

So why am I bringing up something about a Japanese space agency all of a sudden? Well being a fan of the recent 5cm movie, this shot of the launch that Chama posted on the Animesuki forums, reminded me of this very scene from the second part of the movie "Cosmonaut". The launch happened at the same place too on Tanegashima, the island where Takaki ended up transferring to.

Very similar no? Of course, it was ELISH that was launched in the movie and not Kaguya. I doubt Shinkai based that part of the movie on this present date event somehow.

Still no news of the standalone novel's release date yet but I'm it will be soon.