var items = new Array (new ImageMetaData('Japan Exploration Agency\'s (JAXA) H-2A rocket, carrying Japan\'s first lunar orbiter "Kaguya", launches from the Tanegashima Space Center on the small island of Tanegashima off the southern tip of Kyushu Island, southern Japan 14 September 2007. Japan\'s first lunar orbiter successfully launched on the largest mission to investigate the moon since the US Apollo programme began nearly four decades ago, the space agency said. "We successfully launched the rocket and released the orbiter from the rocket," said Eriko Sunada, a spokeswoman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency in Tokyo.   AFP PHOTO / JIJI PRESS (Photo credit should read STR/AFP/Getty Images)','http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Components/Photos/070913/070913_japanese_launch_vmed_10p.jpg','12:52 a.m. ET, 9/14/07','Str / AFP - Getty Images','AFP - Getty Images',20767003),new ImageMetaData('This undated NASA handout image shows a view of the lunar surface taken from the Apollo 8 spacecraft looking southward from high altitude across the Southern Sea. A "significant amount" of frozen water has been found on the moon, the US space agency said November 13, 2009 heralding a giant leap forward in space exploration and boosting hopes of a permanent lunar base. Preliminary data from a dramatic experiment on the moon "indicates the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater," NASA said in a statement."The discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of the moon," it added, as ecstatic scientists celebrated the landmark discovery. "Yes indeed we found water and we did not find only a little bit but a significant amount," said Anthony Colaprete, project scientist and principal investigator for the 79-million-dollar LCROSS mission. ','http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/afp/was2709420.jpg','2:46 p.m. ET, 11/13/09','AFP/Getty Images','AFP',33914521));