South Korea now puts its satellites in orbit with its own rockets

This erases the failure of October 21, 2021 (the Nuri rocket failed to place a dummy satellite in orbit): on June 21, South Korea officially entered the circle of technologically autonomous countries for the launch of satellites. In other words, South Korean satellites were put into orbit by a South Korean rocket. A new Nuri rocket took off from the Naro space center, and a few minutes later released several small CubeSats-type research satellites into orbit.

This success puts an end to a near anomaly: South Korea, a country at the forefront of technology in many fields (robotics, smartphone, etc.), nevertheless remained behind the “rich” countries in the space sector. So far, South Korean satellite launches have been carried out mainly by Russian rockets. South Korea is the tenth country to place satellites in orbit with its own rocket.

This “touchdown” also has direct geopolitical significance: in March of this year, North Korea declared that it had carried out an “important test” for the development of a reconnaissance satellite, although many specialists then estimated that it was actually a simple missile launch. South Korea plans four more satellite launches by 2027.