Successful launch for H-2B (Japanese cargo carrier to International Space Station)

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The first H-2B rocket is launched from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture at about 2 a.m. Friday.TANEGASHIMA, Kagoshima--The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency successfully launched a newly developed H-2B rocket carrying an unmanned cargo module from the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture early Friday.

The module, called the H-2 Transfer Vehicle (HTV), will transport supplies to the International Space Station and was put into orbit as scheduled about 15 minutes after the launch at about 2 a.m. It was due to arrive at the ISS a week later on Friday.

The 10-meter-long, 4.4-meter diameter HTV is capable of carrying cargo of up to six tons and will become the only vehicle to transport large-size experimental equipment to the ISS after the retirement of the U.S. space shuttles. Therefore, the success of the first launch has attracted much attention worldwide.

The H-2B rocket is 56 meters long and weighs 530 tons, the largest of Japan's domestically produced rockets. JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. jointly developed the rocket. The launch capability of the new rocket has been boosted by equipping it with two of the engines used in the first stage of the country's current mainstay H-2A rocket.

<SNIP>http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20090912TDY01303.htm

And on edit, when I say other stuff I still mean space program stuff. I just feel the ISS isn't ever going to be what was hoped for.