The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on Saturday afternoon successfully launched an H-2A rocket and put into orbit a radar satellite, the fourth and last one in its plan of building a full global information gathering system, which enables the photographing of any point on Earth once a day.

The launch of the radar satellite, which is the second one of the second pair of the four-satellite scheme, was initially scheduled for Feb. 15, but was postponed twice due to bad weather conditions around the Tanegashima Space Center in southern Kagoshima prefecture.

The first pair, consists of a radar satellite and an optical one, was launched successfully in March 2003, followed by a failed launch of a second set due to rocket problems later that year.

The first one of the second pair, which is an optical satellite capable of a resolution of one meter, was put into orbit in September 2006.

The H-2A rocket launched on Saturday also carried an experimental optical satellite which will be used to test the functions of apparatus to be used to assemble a spy satellite scheduled for launch in the future to increase detection capability to objects as small as 50 centimeters at ground level, Kyodo News said.

Source: Xinhua