A Japanese H-2A rocket launched from Tanegashima Island on Wednesday with the Himawari 9 weather observatory bound for a perch more than 22,000 miles above Earth to improve forecasting in the Asia-Pacific. Liftoff of the 17-story rocket from southern Japan occurred at 0620 GMT (2:20 a.m. EDT) Wednesday.

Watch the pre-launch news conference held Monday, April 17 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center to preview liftoff of the Orbital ATK commercial Cygnus OA-7 cargo ship aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket for the International Space Station.

The Russian Soyuz rocket that will carry a three-person crew to the International Space Station Wednesday has arrived on its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.