The Nuri rocket takes off from the launchpad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, Jeonnam-Gwangju, on Oct. 7.Korea Aerospace Research Institute
Korea put five primary satellites into orbit on a single launch for the first time on Wednesday, as its domestically developed Nuri rocket completed its fifth flight.
The rocket lifted off from Naro Space Center in Goheung County, Jeonnam-Gwangju, at 12:25 p.m. and deployed the five primary satellites and nine CubeSats into their target orbit, the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) said. A 10th CubeSat remained on board after failing to eject.
Staff from Hanwha Aerospace, which builds the rocket, operated 20 of the 22 launch control consoles for the first time, under the supervision of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). On the fourth flight in November 2025, KARI staff operated the consoles with Hanwha staff assisting.
“This is the first time we have operated the control panels of the launch control center,” said Kim Sun, who leads Hanwha Aerospace's space business. “Building a launch vehicle well does not mean you can provide a launch service.”
Kim said the company expects to take part in operating nearly all the consoles on the sixth flight, so that a rocket the government developed “is not shelved but properly transferred to the private sector.”
“Nuri has successfully completed its planned fifth launch mission,” KASA Administrator Oh Tae-seog said at a 2 p.m. briefing at the space center. The government will oversee launch operations through 2028, and operations will become fully private-led starting in 2029, Oh said. He also said KASA has asked Hanwha to make production and operations more efficient.
“Right now each one is made by hand, and the current production process will not work if we want to launch twice a year,” Oh said.
The Nuri rocket takes off from the launchpad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung County, Jeonnam-Gwangju, on Oct. 7.YONHAP
For Hanwha, a commercial service depends on the flight record. “The most important thing is securing statistical launch reliability,” Kim said. “A launch vehicle has to succeed six or seven times before it can be insured.”
Nuri has now succeeded on four of five flights since October 2021, a success rate of 80 percent. Oh said surpassing the 90 percent the global market expects would likely take until an 11th flight.
“It means we are really still at an early stage,” Oh said, noting that Korea has made 10 orbital launch attempts, against about 2,750 for the United States.
On Wednesday, the third stage reached 575.4 kilometers (357.5 miles) 745.7 seconds after liftoff and released the five constellation satellites, numbered 2 through 6, between 795.3 and 945.3 seconds at about 576 kilometers. The nine CubeSats followed, deploying in succession by 1,021.3 seconds. The altitude criterion for successful deployment was 570 kilometers, plus or minus 15 kilometers.
The five primary satellites, known as Neonsat, are built for frequent monitoring for national security and disaster response.
Satellite No. 6 made first contact with the ground station at King Sejong Station in Antarctica at 1:08 p.m. Communication with satellites No. 2 through No. 5 began at 2 p.m. through Korean-operated ground stations in Daejeon, Jeju and King Sejong Station, as well as overseas stations including Svalbard, Norway.
Korea’s fifth Nuri rocket is raised into position on the launchpad in Goheung, Jeonnam-Gwangju, on Oct. 6 ahead of its launch.KOREA AEROSPACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE
The CubeSat that failed to deploy was developed by Quaternion, a Korean company. “The signal was sent normally from Nuri to the dispenser, but for some reason the dispenser's cover appears not to have opened,” said Park Jong-chan, who heads KARI's Launch Vehicle Advancement Program.
Oh said CubeSat dispensers are built or bought by each satellite's developer, not made as part of the rocket, and that it was too early to name a cause. “We call the launch a success on the basis that the five primary satellites were separated accurately at the vehicle's target altitude,” he said.
“The success of the fifth launch is not a goal but a process,” Kim said. In a separate statement, Hanwha Aerospace called the result “a valuable achievement made together by the relevant agencies and some 300 participating companies.”
A sixth flight is planned for the second half of 2027 and a seventh for 2028.
“We will pursue at least one Nuri launch a year through 2032, and through that further improve Nuri's reliability and shift to a private-sector-led commercial launch service,” Oh said.
