When you’re a three person team out in the field, there’s not always enough time to get it all done.
A Japanese H-IIA rocket with the NASA-Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory onboard, is seen on launch pad 1 of the Tanegashima Space Center, Friday, Feb. 28, 2014, Tanegashima, Japan. Once launched, the GPM spacecraft will collect information that unifies data from an international network of existing and future satellites to map global rainfall and snowfall every three hours. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
We are Launch minus 1 hour. The weather is clear, the rocket is fueled, all systems are GO.
In the press room, reporters are grabbing their hard hats and the cameras and heading up to the roof. I’ll be joining them shortly.
Live launch coverage has started on NASA TV and online at www.nasa.gov/nasatv
Latest mission milestones will be flying thick and fast on www.nasa.gov/gpm
And below is all the coverage Michael, NASA photographer Bill Ingalls, and I have done over the last week.
Go GPM!
Photos!
NASA HQ Flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/sets/72157641344480584/
Features, Video, and Featured photos
GPM’s H-IIA Rocket Rolls Out to the Launch Pad
The H-IIA rocket with the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory aboard rolled out to Launch Pad 1 at 1:04 p.m. on Feb. 27 (Japan time) at Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. The rocket is scheduled to lift off during a launch window that opens at 3:37 a.m. (JST) on Feb. 28. (1:37 p.m. Feb. 27 EST).
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/gpms-h-iia-rocket-rolls-out-to-the-launch-pad/
Home Stretch for GPM Team in Japan
It’s the home stretch for the GPM engineering team from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, that has been on site at Tanegashima Space Center in Japan.
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/home-stretch-for-gpm-engineering-team-in-japan
GPM: Waiting for Launch
The Global Precipitation Measurement mission’s Core Observatory is poised for launch from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tanegashima Space Center, scheduled for the afternoon of Feb. 27, 2014 (EST).
http://youtu.be/nnjL0AwFu9g
Landsat 8 Eyes Japan, GPM Launch Site
This Landsat 8 satellite image of some southern Japanese islands includes Tanegashima (far right), from where the GPM mission’s Core Observatory is
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/landsat-eyes-japan-gpm-launch-site/
GPM’s Last Stop Before Orbit
Art Azarbarzin, NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement mission project manager, and Mashahiro Kojima, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s GPM/DPR project manager, reflect on the long journey the GPM Core Observatory spacecraft has taken to reach its last stop before orbit, the Tanegashima Space Center, Japan.
http://youtu.be/9AnLxge5ONY
GPM: Three Shrine Pilgrimage
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) team members bow at the Ebisu Shrine, the first shrine in a traditional San-ja Mairi, or Three Shrine Pilgrimage, where the team prays on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014 for a successful launch, Tanegashima Island, Japan.
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/gpm-three-shrine-pilgrimage/
Live from Japan: Chatting About NASA’s Next Earth Science Mission
Three days before launch of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan, NASA staff supporting the mission set up shop in the lobby of the Sun Pearl Hotel in nearby Minamitane for a live Twitter Q-and-A to answer questions about the mission and what it will do in orbit.
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/live-from-japan-chatting-about-nasas-next-earth-science-mission
NASA GPM Core Observatory’s Rehearsal Weekend at Tanegashima (also made the front page of www.nasa.gov)
On a small island in southern Japan, a satellite that will measure rain and snowfall over most of the globe prepares for launch.
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-gpm-core-observatorys-rehearsal-weekend-at-tanegashima/
GPM: Greetings from Minamitame!
This video introduces Minamitame Town, near the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tanegashima Space Center, from where the Global Precipitation Measurement mission’s Core Observatory is scheduled to launch on the afternoon of Feb. 27, 2014 (EST).
http://youtu.be/b__X7_u6uDk
GPM: Welcome to Minamitane Town
A sign with a model of the Japanese H-IIB rocket welcomes visitors to Minamitane Town on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014. Minamitane Town is one of only a few small towns located outside of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tanegashima Space Center, where the launch of an H-IIA rocket carrying the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory will take place in the next week.
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/gpm-welcome-to-minamitane-town/
GPM: Tanegashima Space Center
A full-size model of an H-II rocket is seen at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tanegashima Space Center visitors center a week ahead of the planned launch of an H-IIA rocket carrying the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory, Friday, Feb. 21, 2014, Tanegashima Island, Japan.
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/gpm-tanegashima-space-center/