Japan on Sunday successfully launched a rocket carrying X-ray telescopes into Earth's orbit to examine black holes and galaxies, the country's space agency said. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, staged a live Web telecast of the M-5 rocket being shot into a cloudy sky from Uchinoura, 985 kilometers (620 miles) southwest of Tokyo. Three minutes after takeoff, the 6.5-meter-(21-foot-)long satellite jettisoned its main rocket booster, which fell back to Earth. JAXA later said in a statement that the Astro-EII satellite had reached its target orbit about 560 kilometers (348 miles) above the planet's surface. It was the first liftoff for Japan's space program since the February launch of the H-2A rocket. --SP 1106 Local Time 0806 GMT
