On the morning of Feb. 26 (Japan time) at Tanegashima Space Center, chief officers from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., JAXA and NASA reviewed the readiness of the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory for launch and gave the approval to proceed. Launch is scheduled for a one-hour window that opens Feb. 27 at 1:37 p.m. EST. > Home Stretch for GPM Engineering Team in Japan > GPM mission photos