South Korea's homegrown Nuri rocket will make its fifth spaceflight on October 7. Under a production framework led by Hanwha Aerospace (012450) as part of a shift toward the private sector, the mission will place five clustered satellites into orbit at once for the first time in the country, building a full satellite constellation system.
The Korea AeroSpace Administration said on the 27th that it had set October 7 as the target launch date for the fifth Nuri flight, following the first meeting of its launch management committee in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province. The launch window runs from 12:23 p.m. to 1:23 p.m., with the final time to be confirmed based on weather and space environment conditions on the day. A backup launch period of October 8 to 14 has been set in case of unexpected variables such as weather.
At the center of the fifth Nuri launch are microsatellites No. 2 through No. 6, developed by the Satellite Technology Research Center at KAIST. A satellite constellation refers to deploying multiple small satellites in orbit and operating them as a single system, rather than relying on one large satellite. A prominent example is Starlink, operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX, which links thousands of low-orbit satellites to provide internet service around the world.
South Korea launched its first microsatellite in 2024 to verify the technology needed for constellation operations. But that mission put only a single satellite into space. This is the first time the country will place several satellites in orbit simultaneously to build a working constellation system. Once microsatellites No. 2 through No. 6 separate successfully from the Nuri rocket and settle into orbit, they will undergo initial communications, status checks and image calibration before beginning constellation operations.
Along with the five microsatellites, the Nuri rocket will carry 10 cube satellites developed by companies, universities and research institutes — the largest number of payloads on any Nuri launch to date. Operating in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 500 kilometers, the satellites will carry out a range of missions including ionospheric observation, analysis of ocean currents carrying marine debris, Earth observation, radiation data collection, verification of space optical communications technology, fine dust monitoring, demonstration of protein crystal growth and space qualification of domestically produced components and parts.
As with the fourth launch, Hanwha Aerospace will lead production of the launch vehicle for the fifth Nuri flight. Hanwha Aerospace, the systems integration company for the Nuri program, is overseeing production while receiving a phased transfer of technology and expertise in design, manufacturing and launch operations from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. The government plans to gradually expand the role of the systems integration company through the repeated fourth, fifth and sixth launches, eventually moving to a private-sector-led launch service system. "This fifth Nuri launch carries a record 15 satellites and marks an important mission that will place clustered satellites into orbit for the first time in Korea," KASA Administrator Oh Tae-seok said. "It will serve as an opportunity to advance Nuri's mission capabilities and the country's space transport capacity by another step."
