A space-based weather monitor, equipped with upgraded instruments for more detailed and timely data on tropical cyclones and thunderstorms, is scheduled for launch Tuesday on top of Japan’s 25th H-2A rocket.
The H-2A rocket, manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, features twin solid rocket boosters and two stages burning a mix of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants.
Rocketing through gloomy skies with a payload clouded in a veil of secrecy, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket fired away from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday to deploy a satellite thousands of miles above Earth.
A pair of covertly developed inspector satellites to monitor collision threats and nefarious activities in geosynchronous orbit for U.S. Strategic Command blasted off aboard a Delta 4 rocket.