A full-size model of an H-II rocket is seen at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tanegashima Space Center visitors center a week ahead of the planned launch of an H-IIA rocket carrying the Global Precipitation Measurement Core Observatory, Friday, Feb. 21, 2014, Tanegashima Island, Japan. The NASA-Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency GPM spacecraft will collect information that unifies data from an international network of existing and future satellites to map global rainfall and snowfall every three hours.

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Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls