Japan’s Himawari 9 weather satellite will ride into space atop an H-2A rocket from Tanegashima Space Center and reach a preliminary geostationary transfer orbit within 28 minutes of liftoff.
The 7,700-pound (3,500-kilogram) satellite will blast off from Launch Pad No. 1 at the Yoshinobu launch complex at Tanegashina Space Center, a picturesque spaceport carved on the southern edge of Tanegashima Island in southern Japan.
The H-2A rocket carrying Himawari 8 will head east over the Pacific Ocean, dropping its two solid-fueled boosters, nose cone, and a cryogenic core stage in the sea before its upper stage delivers the weather observatory to an orbit stretching more than 22,000 miles above Earth.
A list of the major events during the launch, set for 0620 GMT (2:20 a.m. EDT) Wednesday, is provided below.
Japan’s 35th H-2A rocket blasted off Saturday from the Tanegashima Space Center, flying into orbit in its most powerful configuration with a geostationary navigation satellite.
The Falcon 9 rocket’s eighth flight of 2016 took off from Cape Canaveral early Sunday with the Japanese JCSAT 16 communications satellite, setting a new mark for the most launches made by SpaceX in a single year.
Bad weather offshore has forced SpaceX and NASA to delay Thursday’s planned launch of the Crew Dragon by a day. Better conditions are expected on Friday for a 5:49 a.m. EDT (0949 GMT) liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center.