South Korea on Saturday confirmed its first military spy satellite had reached orbit after a Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) rocket launch and that communication was established with ground control.
Seoul’s reconnaissance satellite, carried by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, intensifies a space race on the Korean Peninsula after North Korea launched its own first military eye in the sky last week.
The South Korean Ministry of National Defense said its satellite reached orbit soon after the rocket, emblazoned with the word “KOREA,” lifted off from the US Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 10:19am on Friday.
Photo: EPA-EFE / handout / Space Exploration Technologies Corp via South Korean Ministry of National Defense
“The satellite was launched 0319 Seoul time and was successfully separated from projectile 11 minutes later and put into targeted orbital trajectory,” the ministry said in a statement. “We have confirmed its communications with the ground command.”
Reaching orbit means that South Korea now has its first domestically built spy satellite to monitor nuclear-armed North Korea.
Seoul plans to launch four additional spy satellites by the end of 2025 to bolster its reconnaissance capacity over Pyongyang.
Set to orbit between 400km and 600km above Earth, South Korea’s satellite is capable of detecting an object as small as 30cm, the Yonhap News Agency said.
“Considering resolution and its capacity for Earth observation ... our satellite technology ranks in the top five globally,” Yonhap quoted a defense ministry official as saying.
The launch came less than two weeks after Pyongyang successfully put its own spy satellite into orbit.
“Until now, South Korea has relied heavily on US-run spy satellites” when it comes to monitoring the North, Sangji University military studies professor Choi Gi-il said.
While South Korea has “succeeded in the launch of a military communications satellite, it has taken much longer for a reconnaissance satellite due to higher technological hurdles,” he said.
Following North Korea’s successful launch of a spy satellite, “the South Korean government needs to demonstrate it can also pull this off,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pyongyang yesterday said it would “destroy” US spy satellites if Washington tries “any attack” on its space asset.
A North Korean Ministry of Defense spokesman said it would consider such a move a “declaration of war,” according to a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
The statement came after a US official’s remark that Washington “could deny an adversary’s space and counterspace capabilities ... using a variety of reversible and irreversible means.”
The US military could undermine the “effectiveness and lethality of adversary forces across all domains,” US Space Command public affairs officer Sheryll Klinkel told Radio Free Asia this week.
The Philippine Department of Justice yesterday labeled Vice President Sara Duterte the “mastermind” of a plot to assassinate the nation’s president, giving her five days to respond to a subpoena. Duterte is being asked to explain herself in the wake of a blistering weekend press conference where she said she had instructed that Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr be killed should an alleged plot to kill her succeed. “The government is taking action to protect our duly elected president,” Philippine Undersecretary of Justice Jesse Andres said at yesterday’s press briefing. “The premeditated plot to assassinate the president as declared by the self-confessed mastermind
Texas’ education board on Friday voted to allow Bible-infused teachings in elementary schools, joining other Republican-led US states that pushed this year to give religion a larger presence in public classrooms. The curriculum adopted by the Texas State Board of Education, which is controlled by elected Republicans, is optional for schools to adopt, but they would receive additional funding if they do so. The materials could appear in classrooms as early as next school year. Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has voiced support for the lesson plans, which were provided by the state’s education agency that oversees the more than
Ireland, the UK and France faced travel chaos on Saturday and one person died as a winter storm battered northwest Europe with strong winds, heavy rain, snow and ice. Hampshire Police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell onto a car on a major road near Winchester early in the day. Police in West Yorkshire said they were probing whether a second death from a traffic incident was linked to the storm. It is understood the road was not icy at the time of the incident. Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power, and closed
CONSPIRACIES: Kano suspended polio immunization in 2003 and 2004 following claims that polio vaccine was laced with substances that could render girls infertile Zuwaira Muhammad sat beside her emaciated 10-month-old twins on a clinic bed in northern Nigeria, caring for them as they battled malnutrition and malaria. She would have her babies vaccinated if they regain their strength, but for many in Kano — a hotbed of anti-vaccine sentiment — the choice is not an obvious one. The infants have been admitted to the 75-bed clinic in the Unguwa Uku neighbourhood, one of only two in the city of 4.5 million run by French aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Kano has the highest malaria burden in Nigeria, but the city has long
RSS