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Japan launches rocket carrying satellite

A Japanese rocket carrying a U.S.-supported sun observation satellite lifted off from a launch pad in southwest Japan early Saturday.
/ Source: The Associated Press

A Japanese rocket carrying a U.S.-supported sun observation satellite lifted off from a launch pad in southwest Japan early Saturday.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched the M-V rocket from Uchinoura, 620 miles southwest of Tokyo, around sunrise, according to a live broadcast on the agency's Web site.

The one-ton SOLAR-B satellite jointly developed by Japan, the United States and Britain, incorporates a set of optical, extreme ultraviolet and X-ray instruments designed to investigate the sun's magnetic field, according to JAXA.

It follows the SOLAR-A satellite, another multinational project which operated in 1991-2001.