The 'Next-Generation Medium Satellite 4,' designed for agricultural and forestry management and monitoring forest changes, has been launched into space.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the satellite was launched on July 7 at 4:12 PM Korea time (12:12 AM local time) from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
Next-Generation Medium Satellite 4 is a 500 kg standard platform agricultural satellite equipped with a domestically developed wide-area observation camera. It will capture images of the entire country every three days, aiding in crop growth monitoring, agricultural land analysis, and forest resource observation.
Following the launch, the Falcon 9 completed first-stage separation approximately 2 minutes and 28 seconds after liftoff, and the satellite fairing was released about 3 minutes and 15 seconds later. The satellite successfully separated from the rocket at around 6:42 PM, approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes after launch.
The satellite will operate in a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of about 888 km. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute announced that the first communication with the satellite is expected to occur about 23 minutes after its separation from the rocket, with the Svalbard ground station in Norway.
Next-Generation Medium Satellite 4 was developed under the first phase of the Next-Generation Medium Satellite project, led by Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI). The satellite weighs 514 kg and features a 120 km observation width and a 5-meter spatial resolution optical payload, enabling it to perform crop yield assessments, agricultural land analysis, and forest resource observations.
It is anticipated that the satellite's ability to capture images of the Korean Peninsula two to three times will enhance land observation efficiency and increase its utility in agricultural and forestry management.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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