The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully launched on Monday an H-IIA rocket carrying Japan's Ibuki-2 greenhouse gas observation satellite and an Earth observation satellite made by United Arab Emirates, putting both into orbit.
In a live JAXA webcast, the rocket was seen lifting off at 1:08 p.m. from Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture. The satellites were subsequently separated from the vehicle some distance apart from each other.
Ibuki-2 is the successor to Ibuki, which was launched in 2009 as the world's first satellite dedicated to monitoring greenhouse gases.