All 5 main payload satellites confirmed operational

6th Nuri launch scheduled for next year

President Lee watches launch live from Cheong Wa Dae

The Nuri rocket lifts off from Launch Pad 2 at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. [Korea Aerospace Research Institute]
The Nuri rocket lifts off from Launch Pad 2 at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. [Korea Aerospace Research Institute]

All five main payload satellites aboard South Korea's homegrown Nuri rocket have been confirmed operational following the rocket's launch from the Naro Space Center on Wednesday.

The Korea AeroSpace Administration said it successfully established contact with nanosatellite No. 5 at 5:52 p.m. Wednesday, completing initial communication with all five nanosatellites — Nos. 2 through 6 — deployed during the mission.

Nuri lifted off at 12:25 p.m. Wednesday, and KASA officially declared the launch a success at a 2 p.m. briefing.

The rocket carried five nanosatellites as its main payload, along with several CubeSats.

The first contact among the five main payload satellites was made with No. 6 at 1:08 p.m. at the Sejong ground station in Antarctica.

Contact was subsequently established with No. 4 at 2:42 p.m., No. 3 at 3:27 p.m. and No. 2 at 4:18 p.m., before the final link with No. 5 was completed at 5:52 p.m.

The government plans to send five additional nanosatellites into orbit aboard Nuri's sixth launch, scheduled for next year.

Once all 10 satellites are operating as a constellation, the imagery they capture will be used for national security and disaster response.

Meanwhile, Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Kim Seong-wan said at a briefing that President Lee Jae Myung watched the fifth Nuri launch live from his office at Cheong Wa Dae.

Lee called the successful launch "a result of the government's active support for space launches" and urged officials to shorten the interval between future launches to accelerate advances in satellite technology.

Lee also posted on X, formerly Twitter, saying South Korea had "come one step closer to 'space sovereignty' — pioneering space with our own capabilities."


jiyun@heraldcorp.com