* Astronomy

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RE: ASTRO-F Satellite

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T minus 20 minutes

Launch schedule

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T minus 30 minutes

All systems nominal

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Live report from Uchinoura Space Centre (media player)

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The ASTRO-F launch is progressing on schedule

Launch tower (old photo)

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Uchinoura Space Centre, Japan (old photo)
Credit JAXA

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Preparation of the ASTRO-F launch is progressing on schedule at JAXA's Uchinoura Space Centre.
Lift-off is scheduled 6:28 AM JST (21:28 GMT)

The ASTRO-F will be placed in a sun-synchronous polar orbit of 745 km.
Its mission is to make an all-sky survey with much better sensitivity, spatial resolution and wider wavelength coverage than IRAS. ASTRO-F has a 68.5cm telescope cooled down to 6K, and will observe in the wavelength range from 1.7 (near-infrared) to 180 (far-infrared) micron.

ASTRO-F fly into a polar orbit along the twilight zone

Weather conditions are acceptable for todays launch.

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Launch angle has been set up toward the launch azimuth.
Because the ASTRO-F is to be onto a polar orbit, the M-V rocket is launched toward the south.

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T minus 2 hours

Tracking dish

Launch operations are still on schedule.

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Launch site Now