NASA : Global Precipitation Measurement Mission Launch Site at JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center

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Global Precipitation Measurement Mission Launch Site at JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center

The launch pads at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima Island, Japan are seen on Friday, Feb. 21, 2014, a week ahead of the planned launch of an H-IIA rocket carrying the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory. GPM is an international mission led by NASA and JAXA to measure rain and snowfall over most of the globe multiple times a day. To get that worldwide view of precipitation, multiple satellites will be contributing observations for a global data set, all unified by the advanced measurements of GPM's Core Observatory, built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Launch of the GPM Core Observatory from Tanegashima Space Center is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 27 during a window beginning at 1:07 p.m. EST (3:07 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 28 Japan time).

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Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com

NASA: Media Invited to View New Earth Science Satellite before Shipment to Japan

Conceptual image of GPM.

Image Credit: NASA

Media Invited to View New Earth Science Satellite before Shipment to Japan

Media have the opportunity Friday, Nov. 15, to get a closer look at NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory satellite before it is shipped to Japan for launch in early 2014.

Media will meet at the Visitors Center at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., at 9:30 a.m. EST, where they will be briefed on the mission and speak with mission scientists. This will be followed by a tour of the spacecraft clean room and opportunities to interview the engineers who built the satellite.

Reporters also will have time to speak with scientists at Goddard's 15-screen Hyperwall about the applications of GPM data, including how rainfall data fit into climate models and contribute to understanding of the entire Earth system. All speakers will be available for interviews.

GPM, scheduled for shipment to the Tanegashima Space Center in November, is an international satellite mission led by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. It will provide next-generation observations of rain and snow worldwide every three hours, as well as unprecedented 3-D views of hurricanes and snowstorms. GPM data will contribute to the monitoring and forecasting of weather events such as droughts, floods and hurricanes.

To attend, media must register by contacting Ellen Gray at 301-286-1950 or

 ellen.t.gray@nasa.gov

no later than Nov. 7. Social media registration is closed.

For more information about the GPM mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/gpm

NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
ayabaca@gmail.com
ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com

NASA - NASA TV Coverage Set for Japanese Cargo Ship Destined for Space Station

Japanese Space Freighter Heading to Station

The H-II Transfer Vehicle launches atop an H-IIB launch vehicle from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 3:48 p.m. EDT Saturday (4:48 a.m. Sunday, Japan time).

Image Token:

The H-II Transfer Vehicle-4 separates from the H-IIB launch vehicle second stage.

Image Credit:  NASA TV

 

The fourth Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) H-II Transfer Vehicle, or HTV-4, launched aboard an H-IIB launch vehicle from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan at 3:48 p.m. EDT Saturday (4:48 a.m. Sunday, Japan time) to begin a weeklong journey to the International Space Station. Also known as Kounotori, or “white stork,” because it is emblematic of an important delivery, HTV-4 is carrying more than 3.5 tons of supplies, food and experiment hardware for the station’s Expedition 36 crew. At the time of launch, the station was flying 260 statute miles over southwest Russia near the border of Kazakhstan.

› Video of HTV-4 launch

 

On Friday, Aug. 9, the HTV-4 will approach the station from below and inch its way slowly toward a holding position about 40 feet from the complex. While Flight Engineer Luca Parmitano monitors the systems of the Japanese space freighter, Flight Engineers Karen Nyberg and Chris Cassidy of NASA will use Canadarm2, the station's Canadian Space Agency-provided robotic arm, to reach out and capture the vehicle at 7:29 a.m. With HTV-4 securely grappled, the robotics team at Houston’s Mission Control Center will command the arm to install the vehicle to its docking port on the Earth-facing side of the Harmony node beginning around 9:30 a.m.

HTV-4 is a 33-foot-long, 13-foot-diameter (10 meter by 4 meter) unmanned cargo transfer spacecraft with both pressurized and unpressurized sections to deliver supplies destined for inside and outside the station.

Among the items within Kounotori’s pressurized logistics carrier are test samples for research experiments inside the Kibo laboratory, a new freezer capable of preserving materials at temperatures below -90 F, four small CubeSat satellites to be deployed from Kibo’s airlock as well as food, water and other supplies for the station’s crew. The pressurized section also is delivering new hardware for the Robotic Refueling Mission to demonstrate robotic satellite-servicing tools, technologies and techniques.

› Read about Robotic Refueling Mission hardware aboard HTV-4

The HTV-4’s unpressurized section is delivering two orbital replacement units (ORUs) – a spare Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) and a spare Utility Transfer Assembly (UTA) – to keep the space station’s electrical system operating smoothly. The UTA maintains electrical continuity through the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, passing electrical power generated by the complex’s huge solar arrays to station elements and payloads, while the MBSU provides switching capabilities for the various power channels and sources. ORUs are modular station components designed to be replaced periodically.

Also inside HTV’s unpressurized cargo hold is the Space Test Program – Houston 4 (STP-H4) payload, which is a suite of seven experiments for investigating space communications, Earth monitoring and materials science. Its predecessor, STP-H3, which was delivered to the station during the final flight of space shuttle Endeavour in May 2011, will be placed inside Kounotori’s unpressurized section for disposal when the cargo craft departs in September and descends to a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean.

NASA TV Coverage Set for Japanese Cargo Ship Destined for Space Station

The launch of a Japanese cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station and its arrival at the orbiting laboratory will be broadcast on NASA Television Aug. 3 and Aug. 9.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency is scheduled to launch its H-II Transport Vehicle (HTV)-4 at 3:48 p.m. EDT Saturday, Aug. 3 (4:48 a.m. Japanese time Sunday, Aug. 4), from the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan. NASA TV coverage will begin at 3 p.m.
Loaded with more than 3.5 tons of supplies, water, spare parts and experiment hardware for the six-person station crew, the unpiloted cargo craft, named Kounotori, the Japanese word for white stork, will embark on a six-day flight to the station.
On Friday, Aug. 9, the HTV-4 will approach the station from below and inch its way slowly toward the complex. Expedition 36 Flight Engineers Karen Nyberg and Chris Cassidy of NASA will operate the station's robot arm to reach out and capture the 12-ton spacecraft and install it on the Earth-facing side of the Harmony module, where it will spend a month. Flight engineer Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency will monitor HTV-4 systems during the rendezvous.
NASA TV coverage of the rendezvous and capture of the HTV-4 on Aug. 9 will begin at 6 a.m. Capture is scheduled about 7:29 a.m. Coverage of the final installation of the resupply craft to Harmony will resume at 9 a.m.
For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

ayabaca@gmail.com

ayabaca@hotmail.com

ayabaca@yahoo.com