South Korea just launched its first orbital mission of the year.
The milestone came on Tuesday night (Oct. 6), when the homegrown Nuri rocket lifted off from the nation's Naro Space Center, carrying 15 satellites skyward.
Liftoff occurred at 11:25 p.m. EDT (0325 GMT and 12:25 p.m. local time on Oct. 7). Almost everything went well: All but one of the payloads was successfully delivered to low Earth orbit as planned, according to the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
Five of those payloads are microsatellites for South Korea's nascent New-space Earth Observation Satellite Constellation for National Safety (NEONSAT) network.
"Each NEONSAT weighs less than 100 kilograms [220 pounds] and carries an electro-optical camera capable of distinguishing objects as small as 1 meter [3.3 feet] in black-and-white images and 4 meters [13.1 feet] in color images," South Korea's Yonhap news agency wrote in a prelaunch preview.
"The satellites will monitor the Korean Peninsula and surrounding areas for national security and disaster response," Yonhap added.
Two NEONSAT satellites had launched before today, both aboard Rocket Lab Electron vehicles. The first went up in April 2024, and the second flew in January of this year. Five more will launch atop a Nuri next year, rounding out the constellation, according to Yonhap.
The other 10 satellites that went up tonight are cubesats, which were provided by a variety of operators. And it was one of these cubesats that experienced difficulty on Tuesday night: PERSAT02, which was developed by the South Korean company Quaternion, failed to deploy, KARI wrote in an X post about two hours after launch.
[누리호, 5차 발사 성공!] 오늘 10월 7일 12시 25분 발사된 누리호가 계획된 비행 절차를 정상적으로 수행하며 5차 발사 임무를 성공적으로 마쳤습니다. 누리호는 목표 태양동기궤도에 정상적으로 진입한 뒤, 주탑재위성인 초소형군집위성 2~6호 5기를 계획된 절차에 따라 성공적으로 분리했습니다. 또한 큐브위성 10기 중 9기가 정상적으로 분리되었으며, 쿼터니언이 개발한 ‘퍼샛’ 1기는 미사출된 것으로 최종 확인되었습니다. 13시 08분경에는 남극 세종기지에서 초소형군집위성 6호와의 최초 교신에도 성공했습니다. 이번 5차 발사를 통해 여러 기의 위성을 한 번의 발사로 정밀하게 궤도에 배치하는 누리호의 우주수송 임무 수행 역량을 한 단계 더 높였습니다. 누리호의 성공적인 비상을 위해 따뜻한 관심과 성원을 보내주신 국민 여러분께 진심으로 감사드립니다. #한국항공우주연구원 #항우연 #KARI #누리호 #누리호5차발사 #KSLVII #우주수송 #국민_여러분_감사합니다October 7, 2026
The 155-foot-tall (47 meters) Nuri, also known as KSLV-II (Korean Space Launch Vehicle-II), is South Korea's first fully homegrown orbital launcher. It is jointly operated by KARI and the company Hanwha Aerospace.
The three-stage rocket failed during its debut mission in October 2021 but is now riding a streak of four straight successes.
"Through this 5th launch, we have further elevated the Nuri rocket's capability to perform space transportation missions by precisely deploying multiple satellites into orbit in a single launch," KARI wrote in the same X post. "We sincerely thank all citizens for your warm interest and support for the successful flight of the Nuri rocket."
