New Japanese spy satellite to look at N Korea
23 Sep 2011
Tokyo: In a move designed to beef up its intelligence gathering network, Japan launched a new spy satellite into orbit on Friday. Officials indicated the satellite would enhance surveillance capabilities against North Korean missiles.
The optical satellite was put into orbit by a Japanese H-2A rocket which lifted off at 1.36pm (0436 GMT) from the Tanegashima Space Centre in southwestern Japan.
"The rocket was launched successfully and the satellite was separated into an orbit around the earth later," Naoki Takarada, an official of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), said.
Japan is enhancing capabilities against North Korea ever since that rogue communist nation launched a missile in 1998 over the Japanese archipelago. It repeated the stunt once again in April 2009, when it launched a three-stage Taepodong-2 missile, with an estimated range of 6,700 kilometres (4,100 miles).
The latest launch will replace one of the three information-gathering satellites Japan currently has in orbit whose shelf-life has expired.
All three are optical satellites, which can capture images in daylight and in clear weather. This clear weather limitation will be overcome over the next two years as the island nation launches two radar satellites with the ability to capture images at night and in cloudy weather.
The satellite was initially scheduled to go into orbit on 28 August, but the launch had to be postponed with the approach of a powerful typhoon and the discovery of a system glitch.
