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 43 Explorer 43 Explorer 43, also called as IMP-I and IMP 6, was a U.S. satellite launched as part of Explorers program. Explorer 43 as launched on March 13, 1971 on Cape Canaveral, with an Delta rocket. Explorer 43 was the sixth satellite of the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform. Explorer 43 continued the study, begun by earlier IMPs, of the interplanetary and outer magnetospheric regions by measuring energetic particles, plasma, and electric and magnetic fields. A radioastronomy experiment was also included in the spacecraft payload. The 16-sided spacecraft was high by in diameter. The spacecraft spin axis was normal to the ecliptic