GPM: Journey to Launch

  • Released Tuesday, November 26, 2013
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An international satellite that will set a new standard for global precipitation measurements from space has completed a 7,300-mile journey from the United States to Japan, where it now will undergo launch preparations.

A U.S. Air Force C-5 transport aircraft carrying the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory landed at Kitakyushu Airport, about 600 miles southwest of Tokyo, at approximately 10:30 p.m. EST Saturday, Nov. 23.

The spacecraft, the size of a small private jet, is the largest satellite ever built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. It left Goddard inside a large shipping container Nov. 19 and began its journey across the Pacific Ocean Nov. 21 from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, with a refueling stop in Anchorage, Alaska.

From Kitakyushu Airport, the spacecraft was loaded onto a barge heading to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA's) Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima Island in southern Japan, where it will be prepared for launch in early 2014 on an H-IIA rocket.

Short video montage of the GPM shipping container leaving Goddard Space Flight Center for Joint Base Andrews, Md. for take off to Kitakyushu Airport in Japan.

Short video montage of the unloading of the GPM container after arriving safely in Kitakyushu, Japan.

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NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

This page was originally published on Tuesday, November 26, 2013.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:51 PM EDT.

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