Japan has successfully launched a land observation satellite, aimed at helping in the aftermath of major natural disasters.
Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries announced that a rocket carrying the satellite was successfully launched at midday on Saturday, from the Tanegashima Space Center. The satellite, named Daichi-2, is capable of image resolutions that can show objects on earth as small as 3 meters. It can also send image data back to earth very quickly, in under an hour, allowing it to provide a unique assessment of large natural disasters.
Its predecessor, Daichi-1, was launched in 2006, and helped to observe damage caused by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
