- Joined
- Oct 11, 2009
- Messages
- 3,484
- Reaction score
- 403
- Points
- 123
- Location
- Utrecht
- Website
- www.spaceflightnewsapi.net
Nasaspaceflight.com: Japanese H-IIA rocket set for Himawari 9 launch
Spaceflight101.com: Japanese H-IIA rolls out for Launch of Advanced Weather Satellite
Live stream of the launch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9KkDsi4u8k&feature=youtu.be
Japan will launch the Himawari 9 weather satellite Wednesday afternoon, with the aid of its H-IIA rocket. Liftoff from the Tanegashima Space Centre, in Japan’s Osumi Islands, is scheduled for 15:20 local time (06:20 UTC), the opening of a two-hour, 58-minute launch window.
Japanese Launch:
Himawari 9 is the second of two third-generation satellites in Japan’s Himawari weather-monitoring series. Alongside Himawari 8, which was launched in October 2014, it is expected to provide the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and the Ministry of Transport with observational data into the late 2020s.
Himawari – meaning sunflower – is a series of spacecraft which began in July 1977 with the launch of Geostationary Meteorological Satellite 1 (GMS-1) which took on the name Himawari after reaching orbit. GMS-1 was the first of five American-built first-generation satellites, whose launches continued until March 1995.
Spaceflight101.com: Japanese H-IIA rolls out for Launch of Advanced Weather Satellite
Japan’s H-IIA launch vehicle is set for liftoff from the picturesque Tanegashima Space Center on Wednesday, carrying into orbit the Himawari-9 advanced meteorological satellite.
Liftoff – pushed from Tuesday due to bad weather – is expected at 6:20 UTC, the opening of a launch window of nearly three hours. Blasting off from the southern tip of Tanegashima Island, the 53-meter tall H-IIA will scream away with a thrust of 685 metric tons, delivered by a cryogenic core stage and a pair of Solid Rocket Boosters which will fire for the first 100 seconds of the flight.
With the boosters gone, the core continues to fire its 109-metric ton force LE-7A engine until six and a half minutes into the flight, handing off to the cryogenic second stage which will be tasked with a pair of burns of its LE-5B engine – first a five and a half-minute burn into a Parking Orbit ahead of a burn of a little over three minutes to boost the 3,500-Kilogram satellite into Geostationary Orbit with separation planned 28 minutes after liftoff.
Live stream of the launch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9KkDsi4u8k&feature=youtu.be
Last edited: