spacetoday.net: Japan launches earth sciences satellite

Posted: Tue, Jan 24, 2006, 6:45 AM ET (1145 GMT)
H-2A launch of ALOS (JAXA)

An H-2A rocket successfully launched Tuesday an a new earth sciences satellite that will play a key disaster monitoring role. The H-2A lifted off from the Tanegashima Space Center at 8:33 pm EST Monday (0133 GMT, 10:33 am local time Tuesday) and placed the Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) satellite into a Sun-synchronous orbit 16 minutes and 30 seconds later. ALOS, also known as Daichi, or "land", carries a suite of instruments including a camera, radiometer, and synthetic aperture radar to collect data for use in mapping as well as disaster monitoring. The launch is the first H-2A flight in nearly a year; the next launch, carrying the MTSAT-2 satellite, is planned for next month.