Japan launched an earth-observing satellite, which includes two NASA experiments, on a domestic H-II rocket on Saturday, August 17 from the Japanese launch facility at the Tanegashima Space Center.
    The Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) launched on August 17 at 0153 GMT. The H-II rocket placed the satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit 800 km (495 mi) high. The launch was the fourth for the H-II, Japan's first rocket built using domestic technology. It was the first commercial launch of the H-II.
    The satellite carries five Japanese experiments as well as two NASA and one French experiments. NASA is contributing a scatterometer -- a microwave radar which will measure wind speeds and directions over the Earth's oceans -- and an instrument to measure global ozone levels.

An Ariane 4 booster launched communications satellites for France and Italy on August 8, the third launch since the failure of the Ariane 5 booster in its first flight.
    The Ariane 44L booster launched the Italsat-F2 and French Telecom-2D satellites at 7:49pm local time (2249 GMT) August 8. The launch had been delayed for 24 hours when a minor problem was discovered with the system that separates the strap-on solid rocket boosters from the main body of the rocket. The problem was quickly corrected.
    Italsat-F2 will be used for voice, data, and digital television broadcasting within Italy. It will also be used for mobile communications in Europe, North Africa and part of the Middle East. Telecom-2D will be used for both civilian and military communications within France and also between France and its overseas possessions.

The launch of a NASA satellite designed to study the aurora was aborted Sunday morning, August 18, when communications problems developed between the satellite and ground controllers.
    The Fast Auroral Snapshot (FAST) Explorer satellite was set to launch at 5:42am EDT (0942 GMT) on a Pegasus XL rocket. The launch was aborted after the L-1011 aircraft which serves as the launch platform took off, when ground controllers could not maintain communications with the satellite.
    Later analysis found that the problem was not with the satellite but with the link between the aircraft and the ground. The problem has not been solved, according to officials, but has been "characterized sufficiently" to reschedule the launch for Wednesday morning, August 21.
    The FAST Explorer will go into a near-polar, highly elliptical orbit. The spacecraft's four experiments, which include electric and magnetic field sensors, will study the plasma physics of the aurorae which are found at both poles. The mission is planned to last one year.

Two American spacecraft destined for Mars arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida last week for final preparations in advance of their launch later this year.
    The Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft arrived at KSC in the early morning hours of August 14. It was transported in an Air Force C-17 cargo jet from a Lockheed Martin facility in Denver, where it was assembled.
    The Mars Pathfinder spacecraft arrived at KSC on the afternoon of August 13. It was sent to Florida in a special van which drove across the country from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Sojourner, the microrover which will accompany the spacecraft, will be shipped separately later this month.
    "The arrival of the two Mars spacecraft at the launch site is a wonderful milestone of which the whole Mars missions team can be very proud," said Dr. Jurgen Rahe, director of Solar System Exploration at NASA Headquarters. "It reminds us just how close we are to returning important new scientific knowledge about the red planet back to Earth."
    Mars Global Surveyor will be launched on a Delta booster from KSC on November 6, at the beginning of a 20-day launch window. It will enter orbit around Mars in September 1997 and return data for one Martian year (687 days). Mars Pathfinder will be launched on a Delta on December 2 at the beginning of a 24-day launch window. It will land on Mars on July 4, 1997 and operate for one month.