South Korea’s Nuri Rocket Deploys 15 Satellites in Fifth Flight

South Korea’s domestically developed Nuri rocket placed 15 satellites into orbit Wednesday, completing its fifth flight and its most complex deployment mission to date.

The 200-ton, three-stage rocket lifted off from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, about 400 kilometers southwest of Seoul, at 12:25 p.m. The Korea AeroSpace Administration said Nuri separated its first and second stages as planned before deploying the payload at an altitude of roughly 575 kilometers.

The mission carried five New-space Earth Observation Satellite Constellation for National Safety spacecraft, known as NEONSATs, along with 10 CubeSats. It was Nuri’s first attempt to release several primary satellites built to conduct the same mission, testing a more demanding deployment sequence than on its previous flights.

The five NEONSAT spacecraft, numbered two through six, were released individually at intervals of 35 to 40 seconds. During that sequence, the rocket’s upper stage rotated by about 45 degrees between each separation to lower the risk of the satellites colliding. The 10 smaller CubeSats were then deployed in pairs at 10-second intervals.

After all 15 spacecraft were released, the upper stage was set to perform a collision-avoidance maneuver and vent its remaining fuel. The active flight sequence lasted about 20 minutes from liftoff. The spent upper stage will remain in orbit before eventually reentering the atmosphere and burning up.

Each NEONSAT weighs less than 100 kilograms and carries an electro-optical camera. The instruments can distinguish objects as small as one meter in black-and-white images and four meters in color images. The satellites are intended to monitor the Korean Peninsula and surrounding areas for national security and disaster response.

Wednesday’s launch placed the first operational group of the planned constellation into orbit. South Korea intends to send five more NEONSAT spacecraft aboard Nuri’s sixth flight next year, bringing the network to 10 satellites. Once the full constellation is operating, it is expected to image the peninsula more than three times a day and revisit the same location within 24 hours.

The fifth flight expands South Korea’s experience with precision satellite deployment as the country works to strengthen an independent space launch capability. Tracking facilities in South Korea and Palau in the western Pacific were assigned to follow the rocket and its payloads during the mission.