A South Korean Earth-observation satellite launched from a US space base in California successfully entered low-Earth orbit and made contact with a ground station, authorities said Sunday.
SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County, California, at 11:59 p.m. Saturday (local time), carrying 45 payloads.
The satellite was separated from the launch vehicle about one hour after liftoff, according to the Korea AeroSpace Administration.
The mission has been dubbed CAS500-2, after the primary satellite called Compact Advanced Satellite (CAS) 500-2 from Korea Aerospace Industries. The next-generation midsized satellite No. 2 was developed for disaster monitoring and agricultural observation.
The satellite was expected to make its first communication with a ground station in Norway about 15 minutes after it was separated from the launch vehicle.
The CAS500-2 had been originally scheduled to launch on a Russian Soyuz rocket in 2022 but the deployment was delayed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Yonhap)
