South Korea's homegrown Nuri rocket will make its fifth launch on Oct. 7, carrying 15 satellites — the most of any Nuri mission to date. The flight will also mark the first time the country places a satellite constellation, a group of satellites operated together, into orbit.
The Korea AeroSpace Administration said on the 27th that it set Oct. 7 as the target launch date at the first meeting of its launch management committee, held in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province. A backup window running from Oct. 8 to Oct. 14 has been set aside in case of weather or other unforeseen conditions. The launch window is set between 12:23 p.m. and 1:23 p.m., with the exact time to be determined on the day of the launch.
The primary payload consists of five microsatellites, Nos. 2 through 6 of a constellation developed by the Satellite Technology Research Center at KAIST. They will be joined by 10 cube satellites developed by domestic companies, universities and research institutes, bringing the total to 15 satellites bound for a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 500 kilometers. It is the largest number of satellites a Nuri rocket has carried on a single flight.
The core aim of the microsatellite constellation is to image the Korean Peninsula and surrounding areas more frequently by operating multiple small satellites at the same time. Using a larger number of satellites to obtain high-resolution imagery quickly would support disaster monitoring and national security. The mission is intended to establish a working constellation operating system.
The cube satellites carry a range of missions, including observation of the ionosphere and Earth's magnetic field, analysis of marine debris movement, fine dust monitoring, verification of space optical communication technology and testing of domestically produced space components. Space Lintech's BEE-1012 will conduct a demonstration mission growing protein crystals in space, while Daejeon City's Daejeon Sat-1 will observe changes in urban space and validate payload technology developed by space companies.
At the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, final assembly work is under way, including the joining of the rocket's stages and installation of pyrotechnic devices. The five microsatellites arrived at the center on the 24th and are undergoing functional checks, and the 10 cube satellites are scheduled to arrive by the 31st. Performance verification tests of the launch pad and tracking systems have already been completed.
The launch is also significant because it will use a Nuri rocket built by the system integration company that took over the technology after it was transferred from the government to the private sector. The government plans to raise the rocket's reliability through repeated launches while building up the domestic private space industry.
"This fifth Nuri launch carries a record 15 satellites and represents an important mission that will place a satellite constellation into orbit for the first time in Korea," Korea AeroSpace Administration Administrator Oh Tae-seok said. "It will serve as an opportunity to advance Nuri's mission capabilities and the country's space transportation capacity by another step."
