Japan to launch backup weather-aviation control satellite Sat.
February 17, 2006Japan will launch a backup satellite for weather observation and air traffic control from the Tanegashima Space Center in southwestern Japan on Saturday, the state-run Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said Friday. A domestically developed H-2A rocket is scheduled to lift off at 3:27 p.m., one minute behind the space agency's original plan, from the launch pad on Tanegashima Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, off the southern tip of the southwestern main island of Kyushu.