[Yang Nak-gyu's Defence Club] Military Reconnaissance Satellite No.1 Successfully Enters Orbit [Comprehensive]

Our military's Military Reconnaissance Satellite 1 has successfully entered its target orbit.

The 'Falcon 9' launch vehicle of the American space company SpaceX, carrying our military's reconnaissance satellite No. 1, was launched from the Vandenberg base in California at 3:19 a.m. Korean time on the 2nd (10:19 a.m. local time on the 1st). (Photo by SpaceX website capture)

On the 2nd, the Ministry of National Defense announced, "Military Reconnaissance Satellite 1 separated from the Falcon-9 launch vehicle at around 3:33 a.m. Korean time and successfully entered its target orbit."

The Falcon-9 is a two-stage liquid-propellant (kerosene + liquid oxygen) rocket. The first stage booster separated 2 minutes and 22 seconds after launch. Subsequently, the second-stage engine ignited, the fairing separated, and the second-stage engine underwent its first shutdown. After 12 minutes and 16 seconds from launch, the satellite separated and entered orbit.

Earlier, SpaceX's Falcon-9 launch vehicle was successfully launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA, at around 3:19 a.m. Korean time on the 2nd. It is the world's only reusable launch vehicle with a launch success rate of 99.2%. As of August this year, out of 246 launches, 244 were successful.

The success of the launch of Reconnaissance Satellite 1 is expected to be confirmed about 80 minutes after liftoff. The satellite, separated from the launch vehicle, is scheduled to communicate with overseas ground stations around 4:37 a.m. Successful communication with the ground means that our military's Reconnaissance Satellite 1 has settled into orbit and is operating normally.

The satellite is expected to be operational in the first half of next year. After communication, the satellite's operational status will be checked, and calibration work will be performed to focus the images. Then, it will be determined whether the satellite is functioning properly. Following this, it will undergo operational test evaluations for 4 to 6 months before becoming fully operational.

Reconnaissance Satellite 1 is a low Earth orbit satellite orbiting at an altitude of 400 to 600 km. It is equipped with electro-optical (EO) and infrared (IR) instruments and can visit specific locations several times a day to perform surveillance and reconnaissance missions. The resolution of the captured images is known to be approximately 0.3 meters. It can identify objects as small as 30 cm on the ground, which is considered superior performance compared to North Korea's reconnaissance satellites, which are known to have a resolution of about 3 meters.

The military authorities plan to sequentially launch four more reconnaissance satellites by 2025, securing a total of five satellites. Among the five reconnaissance satellites to be secured by 2025, Satellite 1 will be equipped with EO and IR instruments, while Satellites 2 through 5 (a total of four) will be equipped with high-performance Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR).

The four satellites equipped with SAR emit electromagnetic waves toward ground targets and create images by synthesizing the reflected signal data, allowing observation of North Korean territory regardless of weather conditions. EO and IR satellites can obtain clearer images than SAR satellites but are affected by weather, so surveillance may be limited when there is heavy cloud cover. Once all five reconnaissance satellites are secured, it is known that specific locations in North Korea can be monitored and reconnoitered at two-hour intervals.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.