South Korea on Monday claimed the successful launch of its second indigenous spy satellite on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, South Korean media reported.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 8:17 a.m. (7:17 p.m. local time) from the John F. Kennedy Space Centre in the US state of Florida and sent the reconnaissance satellite into orbit about 45 minutes after launch.
South Korea’s defence ministry said in a statement that the satellite was successfully separated from the rocket. It said it would check the satellite’s performance through its link with an overseas ground station.
The Koreas each launched their first spy satellites last year – North Korea in November and South Korea in December – amid heightened hostilities. They said their satellites would enhance each other’s surveillance capabilities and strengthen their own missile strike capabilities.
Under its contract with SpaceX, South Korea was to launch five spy satellites by 2025. The first South Korean spy satellite was launched on 1 December from California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base.
In 2022, South Korea became the 10th country in the world to successfully launch a satellite using its own technology, using a domestic rocket to put a so-called “performance surveillance satellite” into orbit. However, experts say that using a SpaceX rocket to launch a spy satellite is cost-effective and that South Korea needs more launches to make sure the rocket is reliable.
North Korea is also seeking to acquire its own space surveillance network to counter military threats it believes the US and South Korea pose.
