A Japanese rocket that fired a weather satellite into space yesterday was decked in colourful manga artwork originally drawn by Chuya Koyama - known for his comic book on two brothers who dream of becoming astronauts - in a bid to raise awareness in children of the wonders of the universe.

The H-IIA rocket carrying a Himawari-9 weather satellite blasted into a cloudy sky at the Tanegashima Space Centre in the southern Kagoshima prefecture of Japan.