The launch vehicle for the Global Precipitation Measurement, or GPM, mission's Core Observatory arrived at Tanegashima Space Center, Japan, in the pre-dawn hours of Tuesday, Jan. 21, local time. The Japanese H-IIA rocket, No. 23, has two stages that arrived by cargo freighter the previous evening. They were then trucked across the island in the middle of the night when no cars were on the road. Both stages of the Japanese H-IIA rocket arrived at Tanegashima Island, Japan on Jan. 20, 2014. Above, the first stage in its shipping container is lifted off of the cargo freighter. It and the upper

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory had a busy week at Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. The GPM propulsion team did a thorough check of the propulsion system to prepare for fueling the spacecraft later this month. In addition, the GPM completed a full End-to-End test. End-to-End testing simulates mission conditions with the ground systems and communication systems between the spacecraft, data return functions, the Mission Operations Center and Precipitation Processing System at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and the Japan Aerospace Exploration

People in the southern Philippines are used to heavy rainfall this time of the year but rainfall totals have recently been exceptionally high. A tropical low northeast of Mindanao has been an almost permanent feature on weather maps for the past week. It has caused nearly continuous rain in the area of northeastern Mindanao triggering floods and landslides that have caused the reported deaths of 34 people. The TRMM Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA), produced at Goddard Space Flight Center, combines the rainfall estimates generated by TRMM and other satellites (3B42). The analysis