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 34 perpendicular to the ecliptic plane. Like the earlier IMPs, this spacecraft was instrumented to study interplanetary magnetic fields, energetic particles, and plasma. The spacecraft optical aspect system failed on 4 March 1969. Otherwise, useful data were acquired until just before spacecraft reentry, which occurred on 3 May 1969. Explorer 34 Explorer 34, also called IMP-4 and Interplanetary Monitoring Platform IMP-F, was an American satellite launched as part of Explorers program. Explorer 34 as launched on 24 May 1967 on Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, United States, with Delta rocket. Explorer 34 was the fourth satellite of the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform.