Image Caption: Global Precipitation Measurement Mission Launch Site at JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

By Ellen Gray, NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center

On the first floor of the Spacecraft Test and Assembly building at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agencys (JAXA) Tanegashima Space Center, Japan, a skeleton crew of blue-shirted NASA engineers for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission fill three rows of computer stations. Sitting with them, on top of one of the desktop computers, is a squat, roundish doll. About the size of a grapefruit, its bright red with a stylized, decorative face. Its most noticeable feature is that it only has one eye colored in.

Its a Daruma doll, systems engineer Lisa Bartusek of NASA said during a lull in the launch dress rehearsal that took place Feb. 22 and 23, the weekend before the GPM launch. The doll is a symbol of good luck and in Japan is often given as a gift for encouragement to reach a goal. When you set a goal, you color one eye in, and when you reach your goal, you color in the other one, Bartusek said.

The goal for the GPM team in Japan? A good launch.

On Feb. 28 during a launch window that begins at 3:07 a.m. JST, the GPM Core Observatory is scheduled to blast into orbit aboard a Japanese H-IIA rocket. Due to the time difference with the United States, thats 1:07 p.m. EST on Feb. 27.

GPM is an international mission led by NASA and JAXA to measure rain and snowfall over most of the globe multiple times a day. To get that worldwide view of precipitation, multiple satellites will be contributing observations for a global data set, all unified by the advanced measurements of GPMs Core Observatory. Built at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., the Core Observatory is launching from JAXAs Tanegashima Space Center on Tanegashima Island.

[ Watch the Video: GPM: Greetings from Minamitame! ]

Tanegashima is a small island off the southern coast of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japans four big islands. Its about 35 miles long and 9 miles wide, similar in size to Guam, and covered in sugar cane and sweet potato farms as well as a dense subtropical forest. Its small town rural Japan, but as soon as you drive into the southernmost town of Minamitane rockets start appearing on every major signpost.

Minamitane is the closest town to Tanegashima Space Center. It has a few main streets, a mix of modern shops, 60s concrete facades, clapboard restaurants with brightly colored banners, and hotels studded with every JAXA and NASA mission sticker thats passed through the space center going back two decades.

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NASA GPM Core Observatory's Rehearsal Weekend At Tanegashima