The homegrown rocket Nuri on Oct. 7 is launched from Naro Space Center in Goheung-gun County, Jeollabuk-do Province. (Screenshot of center's official Youtube channel)

By Uyen Nguyen

The homegrown launch vehicle Nuri on its fifth launch has sent five satellites to form the country's first microsatellite constellation and nine CubeSats into their target orbits.

Blastoff came on Oct. 7 at 12:25 p.m. from Naro Space Center in Goheung-gun County, Jeollabuk-do Province. The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute said the rocket completed its scheduled flight sequence as planned and entered its target orbit.

Nuri carried a record-high 15 satellites, with all five microsatellites for the constellation and nine of the 10 CubeSats successfully separating.

By 6 p.m. that day, all five microsatellites established two-way communications with ground stations in Korea and abroad, confirming their normal operations.

This was the first time for the country to simultaneously send into their target orbits five national satellites on the same mission, with all of them achieving initial communications.

KASA will launch Nuri at least once a year through 2032, with its sixth slated for the second half of next year.

"By launching five national satellites simultaneously and establishing initial communications with all of them, we demonstrated our capacity to mass produce satellites and operate satellite constellations," KASA Administrator Oh Taeseog said. "We will smoothly proceed with subsequent initial operations and performance verification to ensure the practical use of these satellites in national security and disaster response."

President Lee Jae Myung on Oct. 7 watches live the launch of the rocket Nuri from his office at Cheong Wa Dae. (Cheong Wa Dae)

President Lee Jae Myung watched the live broadcast of the rocket going into space from his office at Cheong Wa Dae. After a successful launch was confirmed, he clapped with officials and called it the result of his administration's active support for space launches.

uyen81@korea.kr