14 DAY TRIAL // The Global Precipitations Measurement (GPM) satellite is currently scheduled to launch into space in late February, from the Tanegashima Space Center, on Tanegashima Island, Japan, but getting the spacecraft into position was not the easiest task to accomplish. The struggles faced by NASA in getting the spacecraft to Japan are highlighted in this new video from the American space agency.
GPM, the result of collaboration between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), will launch into Earth's orbit on February 27, at around 1:07 pm EST (1807 GMT), aboard an HII delivery system provided by Japan. However, the spacecraft was assembled in Maryland, at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).
The manager of the GPM project at the Center, Art Azarbarzin, says that planning this 11,750-kilometer (7,300-mile) journey from Maryland to Tanegashima Island took two years to plan, as well as switching between trucks, airplanes and boats several times.
“It was above and beyond the mundane stuff. I can ship a spacecraft down to Kennedy [Space Center in Florida] with my eyes closed, you know, but this involved a lot more,” said GSFC Logistics and Project Support Branch expert, Jean Manall.
GPM left Goddard on November 21, 2013, spent two days at the Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska (due to severe weather), and then finally arrived at the launch site on November 26, after crossing the international time line.