Japanese Rocket Decked Out In Manga Art Launches Satellite Into Space

[Hindustani78]

• http://www.hindustantimes.com/world...-into-space/story-d1kpA63wAisR03y3aKtMAO.html
  
• 
  
• AFP, Tokyo
  |
• Updated: Nov 02, 2016 16:17 IST

Japan's H-2A rocket, carrying a Himawari-9 weather satellite, was launched at the Tanegashima Space Center on Wednesday. (AFP Photo)

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A Japanese rocket that fired a weather satellite into space on Wednesday was decked out in colourful manga in a bid to raise awareness among kids about the wonders of the universe.

The H-IIA rocket carrying the Himawari-9 weather satellite blasted into a cloudy sky at the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Kagoshima prefecture at 3:20 pm (0620 GMT).

Japan’s domestically developed mainstay rocket carried two pieces of manga artwork originally drawn by Chuya Koyama, known for his comic book on two brothers who dream about becoming astronauts.

“We believe it’s the first time in the world to launch a rocket with manga art on it,” said Hirokazu Kosada of Young Astronauts Club Japan, the foundation that organised the rocket art project.

The artworks were created by using 30,000 digital images of photographs and paintings sent by children across Japan, according to Kosada.

This undated handout picture released on November 2, 2016 by the Young Astronauts Club Japan shows Japanese employees pasting manga, or comic art, onto the H-2A rocket. (AFP Photo)
One of the manga, which in total measures three-metres (nine-feet) tall and occupies the upper part of the 53-metre long rocket, depicted 12 jumping children.

“We wanted children in Japan to be interested in space and the weather,” Kosada told AFP.

Japan has a massive space programme and the country has achieved successes in both scientific and commercial satellite launches. It has sent astronauts on space shuttle and International Space Station missions.

 

[Shotgunner51]

Very interesting!

 

[bananarepublic]

Japan has a craze for anime and manga and they literally put it everywhere I mean EVERYWHERE..

• http://www.hindustantimes.com/world...-into-space/story-d1kpA63wAisR03y3aKtMAO.html
  
• 
  
• AFP, Tokyo
  |
• Updated: Nov 02, 2016 16:17 IST

Japan's H-2A rocket, carrying a Himawari-9 weather satellite, was launched at the Tanegashima Space Center on Wednesday. (AFP Photo)

• 
  

A Japanese rocket that fired a weather satellite into space on Wednesday was decked out in colourful manga in a bid to raise awareness among kids about the wonders of the universe.

The H-IIA rocket carrying the Himawari-9 weather satellite blasted into a cloudy sky at the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Kagoshima prefecture at 3:20 pm (0620 GMT).

Japan’s domestically developed mainstay rocket carried two pieces of manga artwork originally drawn by Chuya Koyama, known for his comic book on two brothers who dream about becoming astronauts.

“We believe it’s the first time in the world to launch a rocket with manga art on it,” said Hirokazu Kosada of Young Astronauts Club Japan, the foundation that organised the rocket art project.

The artworks were created by using 30,000 digital images of photographs and paintings sent by children across Japan, according to Kosada.

This undated handout picture released on November 2, 2016 by the Young Astronauts Club Japan shows Japanese employees pasting manga, or comic art, onto the H-2A rocket. (AFP Photo)
One of the manga, which in total measures three-metres (nine-feet) tall and occupies the upper part of the 53-metre long rocket, depicted 12 jumping children.

“We wanted children in Japan to be interested in space and the weather,” Kosada told AFP.

Japan has a massive space programme and the country has achieved successes in both scientific and commercial satellite launches. It has sent astronauts on space shuttle and International Space Station missions.

 

[qwerrty]

space brothers anime is awesome if anyone haven't seen yet. very realistic. the real buzz aldrin is in the anime too

 

[Hindustani78]

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's Epsilon rocket carrying the satellite named Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) set off from the Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, Japan in this photo taken by Kyodo December 20, 2016. Kyodo/via REUTERS

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-launch-japan-idUSKBN1491P2
Japan's space agency said on Tuesday it had successfully launched a solid fuel rocket named Epsilon-2, the latest in Tokyo's effort to stay competitive in an industry that has robust growth potential and strong security implications.

The 26-meter-long rocket, launched at about 8 p.m. (1100 GMT) from the Uchinoura Space Center in southern Japan, released a satellite for studying radiation belts around the earth soon after the lift-off, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.

The Epsilon-2 three-stage rocket is part of a new generation of solid propellant rockets and makes it possible for launch costs to be reduced up to one third, according to JAXA.

Curbing costs for rocket launches is important as more emerging economies aim to put communication and weather satellites in space and Japan faces stiff competition with U.S. and European rivals such as Arianespace.

(Reporting by James Daniels; editing by Ralph Boulton)

 

[Hindustani78]

Japan’s H-2A rocket lifts off carrying Defense Ministry’s first communications satellite Kirameki-2 from the Tanegashima Space Center in Minamitane on Tanegashima Island, southern Japan, on Tuesday. — AP
http://saudigazette.com.sa/world/asia/japan-unveils-first-military-communications-satellite/
TOKYO — Japan on Tuesday launched its first military communications satellite to boost the broadband capacity of its Self Defense Forces as they reinforce an island chain stretching along the southern edge of the East China Sea.

Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the military is operating further from Japan’s home islands as it takes on a bigger role to counter growing Chinese military activity in the region.

The satellite lifted off from Japan’s Tanegashima space port aboard an H-IIA rocket at 0744 GMT and successfully entered orbit, said a spokesman for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds the launcher.

The satellites is one of three planned so-called X-band satellites, that will quadruple broadband capacity, unify a fractured and overburdened communications network and allow communications across more territory.

Japan and China are locked in a territorial dispute in the East China Sea over a group of uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China. The two countries are also at odds over the exploitation of gas fields that straddle exclusive economic zones claimed by both.

Japan, the main US ally in Asia, is concerned that a recent increase in Chinese military activity in the area is a sign it is looking to extend its military influence from the neighboring South China Sea as a challenge to US maritime dominance.

In the nine months from April to December, Japan scrambled fighter jets to counter Chinese aircraft approaching Japanese airspace 644 times, almost double the 373 times a year earlier, Japan’s Ministry of Defense announced on Friday.

In December, China’s first aircraft carrier, the Soviet-built Liaoning, accompanied by several warships, sailed through the passage between the Japanese Southwestern islands of Mikado and Okinawa and into the Pacific for what China described as routine exercises.

The Tuesday launch marks the successful resumption of a program that was halted last year by an embarrassing mishap.

The first of the three satellites, which was meant to go into space from Europe’s Space port in French Guiana, was crushed during a flight from Japan after a blue tarpaulin covering its transport box blocked valves meant to equalize the internal air pressure as the cargo aircraft descended.

The accident damaged sensitive antennas, government sources said in July.

 

[somebozo]

WHy does the rocket resemble Chinese design?

 

[conworldus]

Wrong section.