TOKYO – Japan’s space agency today launched a satellite into orbit around the Earth, where it will map the sky using infrared wavelengths.
The launch of the one-ton ASTRO-F – first developed by Britain, the United States and the Netherlands – follows a string of successes for the agency, which has struggled in the past.
An M-V rocket carrying the sky-mapping satellite lifted off from Uchinoura, 620 miles southwest of Tokyo, later entering its planned orbit and flying normally, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency spokeswoman Nobuko Sato said.
Japan has recently been racing to catch up with China, a regional rival that has put astronauts in space twice since 2003 – only the third country to send a human into orbit on its own after Russia and the U.S.
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