Ask OCE — February 8, 2006 — Vol. 1, Issue 4
Japan’s space agency JAXA plans to launch MTSAT-2, the second in a pair of satellites, on Saturday, February 18 from an H-IIA launch vehicle at the Tanegashima Space Center.
MTSAT-2 has both aeronautical and a meteorological mission objectives. It is expected to play a key role in increasing airspace capacity and ensuring air navigation safety in the Asia/Pacific region in order to cope with increasing air traffic. Its meteorological objective is to obtain cloud coverage of East Asia and the Western Pacific regions. The Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of Japan (MLIT) and the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) are key stakeholders in the missions.
Rocket System Corporation built the H-IIA rocket, which is Japan’s primary large-scale launch vehicle.
