Japan's space agency recently confirmed that it has successfully launched a weather satellite into space on Wednesday. What is even more interesting about the launch is that the satellite was adorned with snippets of Japanese manga art.

The reason behind this is to raise awareness among the younger generation about the wonders of outer space and the universe.

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The Himawari-9 weather satellite was launched by the H-IIA rocket into space. It was launched at the Tanegashima Space Center located on the southern Japanese prefecture of Kagoshima.

The H-IIA was adorned by two pieces of manga artwork based on the original works of Chuya Koyama, known for his comic book about two brothers who dreamt of becoming astronauts.

In a statement acquired by Phys.org, Young Astronauts Club Japan deputy general director Hirokazu Kosada said, "We believe it's the first time in the world to launch a rocket with manga art on it."

The group was at the forefront of the project to design Japanese space satellite with manga art in order to bring it closer to the younger generation. The two manga artworks were pieces of a massive photo collage.

Kosada said they used 30,000 digital images of paintings and photographs sent by children all across Japan in order to create the artworks.

One of the artworks, which occupies the upper part of the rocket, is three meters tall and shows 12 jumping children.

Japan is known for its massive space program. The country has launched satellites into the outer space which are now being used both for scientific and commercial purposes.

TagsJapan, space satellite, Satellite, manga, Space, Japanese manga