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".
September 1996 lunar eclipse dark mare. This is the second of four lunar year eclipses at the ascending node of the moon's orbit. September 1996 lunar eclipse A total lunar eclipse took place on Friday, September 27, 1996, the second of two lunar eclipses in 1996, the first being on Thursday, April 4. It was part of Lunar Saros 127. The eclipse started at 0:13:59 UTC, the greatest was at 2:54:22 and ended at 5:34:51. Its length of totality lasted more than 1 hours and 9 minutes. This is the 41st member of Lunar Saros 127. The previous event is the September 1978 lunar