While it doesn’t give an exhaustive list, it does name the following payloads: In addition to the EO/IR satellite for South Korea, SpaceX said there are 25 additional spacecraft hitching a ride on the Falcon 9 rocket. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said the launch using ballistic missile technology was “a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions,” adding that it “risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond.” 21, an action that was condemned by several nations, including the United States. The mission launch comes on the heels of North Korea’s claims that it successfully launched its own spy satellite on Nov. Graphic: Thales Alenia SpaceĪccording to a 2022 report in The JoongAng, the satellite launching on Friday along with the four SAR satellites will launch to an orbit between 600 and 700 km above the Earth’s surface and are designed to monitor North Korea every two hours. A rendering of one of four synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites being developed by Thales Alenia Space, Aerospace Industries and Hanwha Systems Corporation for South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development. The contact for the satellites is worth $930 million, per DefenseNews. “Thales Alenia Space is honored to have earned the confidence of the Korean Ministry of Defense and other authorities involved in this project, who recognized our proven track record in delivering state-of-the-art observation satellites,” said Donato Amoroso, Senior Vice-President, Observation, Exploration and Navigation at Thales Alenia Space, in a 2018 statement. Those additional four SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellites are being developed by Thales Alenia Space in partnership with Aerospace Industries, LTD. It features a 30cm resolution electro-optic (EO) and infrared (IR) sensors.Ī spokesperson for the agency told the press earlier this month that this would be the country’s first military spy satellite with four additional satellites launching by 2025. Headlining the slate of 25 spacecraft on board the Friday morning launch was a satellite for South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and its 425 Project. This launch also marked the first time a Falcon 9 first stage with more than 15 previous flight will support a non-Starlink mission.įollowing launch, the booster landed back at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4) at VSFB about eight-and-a-half minutes after liftoff. The booster for the mission, B1061, made its 17th flight after previously launching the Crew-1 and Crew-2 missions along with the fourth and fifth Transporter rideshare missions. The company aims to launch another batch of 23 Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in the early hours of Saturday morning. The launch is set to be the first of two missions SpaceX plans to launch over the weekend. The rocket lifted off from Space Launch Complex 4 East (SLC-4E) at 10:19 a.m. The launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base was headlined by the Korea 425 mission. Kicking off the month of December for SpaceX was a Falcon 9 ride share mission with a payload of 25 spacecraft on board. A Falcon 9 rocket stands ready to launch the Korea 425 mission from SLC-4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Live spy cam feed