Japan's KAGUYA spacecraft performs first lunar HDTV transmission

DirecTV's "Starship" has the right name, but it can't hold a candle to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) KAGUYA satellite which has beamed back the first ever HDTV images from the moon. Form its orbit about 100km above the moon's surface, the spacecraft trained its HDTV camera on the moon and sent the images back for all to see. There were only two "scenes" put in the can, both taken from the area around "Oceanus Procellarum." Click through to see (the very crispy, we think) stills from the captures as well as a short video clip. Alas, the video offered up by JAXA is a decidedly non-HD 480x270 pixels. Taking a lesson from Alien's "In space, no one can hear you scream" PSA, there's also no audio, so feel free to add your own soundtrack as you watch (some version of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" is the obvious choice).