GPM Core Observatory Ready for Thursday Launch

Ready
Credit: NASA HQ

Officials with NASA and the Japanese Space Agency JAXA have given the go ahead for tomorrow’s launch of the Global Participation (GPM) Core Observatory, a precipitation measuring satellite which will launch from Japan aboard a HII-A rocket.

Liftoff is scheduled during a one hour window beginning at 1:37 pm EST, 3:37 am Japan Standard Time, and will be covered on NASA TV and at JAXA’s website.

GPM is headed towards a 253 mile circular orbit at an inclination of 65 degrees, which will allow it to use its primary instruments, a microwave imager and duel frequency precipitation radar to study rain and snowfall across the globe from the edge of Artic Circle to the edge of Antarctic Circle, serving as the centerpiece of a suite of smaller satellites for which it will provide a calibration service.