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".
European Lunar Explorer Montes Carpatus. The spacecraft was designed to travel 500 metres after landing, in order to explore its landing site. ELL was the part of the spacecraft to land on the Moon, while ELE was the complete spacecraft, including the two stages intended to propel it from low Earth orbit to a trans-lunar trajectory. European Lunar Explorer The European Lunar Explorer (ELE) or European Lunar Lander (ELL) was a planned Romanian Lunar lander. It was being developed by ARCA, as an entrant for the Google Lunar X Prize, until it was cancelled in 2014. It was intended to have a mass