Japan Station: the Japanese Experiment Module (Kibo) was added to the station during Space Shuttle assembly flights in 2008. The space probe "Akatsuki" was launched May 20, 2010, and achieved orbit around Venus on December 9, 2015. Japan's plans in space exploration include: developing the "Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter" to be launched in 2018; and building a moon base by 2030. On September 14, 2007, it launched lunar explorer SELENE (Selenological and Engineering Explorer) on a H-IIA (Model H2A2022) carrier rocket from Tanegashima Space Center. SELENE is also known as Kaguya, after the lunar princess of "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter".
Explorer 18 Explorer 18 Explorer 18, also called IMP-A, IMP 1 and S-74, was an American satellite launched as part of Explorers program. Explorer 18 was launched on 27 November 1963 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, United States, with Delta rocket. Explorer 18 was the first satellite of the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform. Explorer 18 was a solar cell and chemical-battery powered spacecraft instrumented for interplanetary and distant magnetospheric studies of energetic particles, cosmic rays, magnetic fields, and plasmas. Initial spacecraft parameters included a local time of apogee of 1020 hours, a spin rate of 22 rpm, and a spin direction of 115° right