Clementine A lunar mapping mission on behalf of NASA and the US Department of Defense, launched in January 1994. It achieved lunar orbit, completed its photographic tasks, and left orbit on 3 May, heading for asteroid Geographos. On 7 May a housekeeping computer malfunction led to the depletion of the attitude-control propellant and the abandonment of the asteroid mission. Clementine entered an Earth orbit that passed repeatedly through the Van Allen belts, from which the spacecraft continued to transmit data from its sensors.

clem·en·tine / ˈklemənˌtīn; -ˌtēn/ • n. a tangerine of a deep orange-red North African variety that is grown around the Mediterranean and in South Africa.

clementine A citrus fruit, Citrus nobilis var. deliciosa; regarded by some as a variety of tangerine and by others as a cross between the tangerine and a wild north African orange.