The first satellite developed, operated by South Korea
韩国观测卫星发射升空 可监视朝鲜
South Korea's Arirang-5 satellite has been launched atop a Russian Dnepr rocket.
The launch took place at 8:39 pm,Thursday local time from Russia’s Dombarovsky launch site. Arirang-5 has successfully entered orbit and communicated with the control center on the ground.
The satellite is expected to circle the earth 15 times a day in a sun synchronous orbit with an average altitude of 550 kilometers, regardless of weather conditions. It has a mission lifespan of five years.
Arirang-5 is a radar imaging satellite, the first to be developed and operated by South Korea. The satellite has cost $212 million US dollars since 2005 to build.
The satellite will be South Korea’s fourth multi-purpose satellite, but the first with synthetic aperture radar that will provide images of 1-meter resolution.