(File photo: VCG)

A satellite launched by Japan on Friday is designed to produce a look-alike meteor shower that's due to streak across the sky in the spring of 2020.

The satellite was one of seven carried into orbit atop an Epsilon-4 rocket launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency from the Uchinoura Space Center in southwestern Japan's Kagoshima Prefecture, local media reported on Friday.

The Tokyo-based company that made the satellite designed it to release tiny balls that will glow white hot as they reenter the Earth's atmosphere. The company hopes this will imitate the appearance of a meteor shower.