Akatsuki and IKAROS to launch today

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla

2010/05/20 04:08 CDT

Topics:

This is mostly a repost from Monday: Just a programming note, a reminder that Japan plans to launch the Venus orbiter Akatsuki and the solar sail IKAROS today at 21:58:22 UTC. I plan to be watching their webcast, which is supposed to begin at 21:30 UTC. I will probably not post anything here in real time; for as-they-happen updates, watch my Twitter page. I'll do a wrapup post here after the launch (or scrub, if that happens).Spaceflightnow has a handy timeline for the launch. The Tanegashima Webcam is showing much, much better weather today than before.