SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea launched its largest satellite on its national space rocket early Thursday, the fourth of six planned launches through 2027.
The three-stage Nuri rocket launched from the country's spaceport on an island off the southwestern coastal county of Goheung. Aerospace officials were watching to see whether the 516-kilogram (1,137-pound) science satellite and 12 other microsatellites could be successfully delivered into orbit.
The main satellite, designed to orbit 600 kilometers (372 miles) above Earth, features a wide-range airglow camera to monitor polar activity and separate systems to measure plasma and magnetic fields and test how biological experiments are conducted in space.
A dozen smaller cube satellites developed by university groups and research institutes include GPS systems to study the Earth's atmosphere, infrared cameras to track plastic in the oceans and systems to test solar panels or communications equipment.
Thursday's event marked the country's first launch of a Nuri rocket since then. May 2023, when it successfully launched a 180-kilogram (397-pound) observation satellite into orbit, the fourth overall since its launch. first attempt in October 2021, which failed to deliver a prototype device.
