South Korea successfully launched its new homegrown multipurpose satellite Arirang 7 into orbit on December 2, 2025, aboard a Vega-C rocket from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana. The satellite separated from the launcher about 44 minutes after lift-off and made its first communication with Antarctica’s Troll Station roughly an hour later, before establishing contact with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). All key systems, including the solar panels and antenna, were confirmed to be operating normally. Arirang 7, which weighs about 1,840 kilograms, will orbit the Earth at around 500 kilometers in a sun-synchronous path and has a planned mission life of five years. It carries a 0.3-meter-class high-resolution optical camera and an infrared sensor, offering more than triple the image-reading performance of its predecessor, Arirang 3A. Its enhanced capabilities will support disaster monitoring, land and environmental management, and various public-sector applications. The satellite is South Korea’s first fully domestically designed, built, and verified Earth-observation satellite. After several months of in-orbit testing and calibration, it is expected to begin providing operational imagery in the first half of 2026. (ICE SEOUL)

Fonte notizia: KOREA JOONGANG DAILY