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Korea's Earth observation satellite makes first contact with home ground station

Published: 04 May. 2026, 09:05

LEE JIAN
[email protected]

Researchers conduct control operations for the Next Generation Medium Satellite 2 at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) ground station in Daejeon on May 3. [KASA]

Korea's mid-sized Earth observation satellite has made its first contact with a ground station on home soil, the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) said on Sunday.

The Next Generation Medium Satellite 2, also known as CAS500-2, established contact with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute ground station in Daejeon at 10:18 p.m. on Sunday, approximately 6 hours and 18 minutes after launch.

The satellite, developed by Korea Aerospace Industries, is expected to begin full operations in the second half of 2026, providing high-precision ground observation imagery for land and resource management, disaster response and national spatial information.

It was launched at 11:59 p.m. Saturday from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It separated from the launch vehicle approximately one hour after launch at an altitude of about 498 kilometers (309 miles), and made first contact with the ground station in Svalbard, Norway, around 15 minutes later, confirming that the main body systems were in good condition.

Engineers in Daejeon conducted a status check of the satellite, KASA said. Continuous monitoring of the satellite's condition will be carried out through further communications with both overseas and domestic ground stations.

To maintain round-the-clock contact with the satellite during the initial operating period, three overseas ground stations are reportedly being used in conjunction, including the Svalbard Satellite Station in Norway and stations at the Troll base in Antarctica.

The satellite, with a mission lifespan of four years, can observe the ground at a resolution of 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) in black and white and 2 meters in color. KASA said the imagery will be used for land and resource management, mapmaking, urban planning and ground change detection, and is also expected to support the observation of and response to natural disasters, including typhoons, heavy snowfall, floods and wildfires.

BY LEE JIAN [[email protected]]