A Japanese weather satellite launched Tuesday aboard an H-2A rocket, beginning a mission to monitor tropical cyclones and storm systems over East Asia and the Western Pacific.
Working outside the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency crewmate Alexander Gerst successfully moved a failed ammonia pump module to an external stowage platform, completing a task originally planned for a repair spacewalk last December.
Japan has launched a next-generation geostationary weather satellite on the 25th flight of the country’s H-2A rocket, deploying an upgraded meteorological observatory critical to the minute-by-minute tracking of tropical cyclones and other storm systems across the Asia-Pacific.
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.