S. Korea's 1st geostationary ocean-weather satellite placed into orbit

Joongang Daily ^ | 6/27/2010 | Joongang Daily

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

South Korea's first geostationary ocean-weather satellite has successfully reached Earth's orbit after being launched from Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana, the government said Sunday.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said the Chollian communication, ocean and meteorological satellite (COMS) blasted off from French Guiana on an Ariane 5-ECA rocket at 6:41 a.m. (Korea Time) after encountering minor technical problems on Thursday and Friday that delayed the launch.

The Chollian successfully reached "geostationary transfer orbit" and separated from the second stage rocket roughly 32 minutes after takeoff, the ministry in charge of the country's space program said.

It said the Dongara ground station in Australia established initial contact with the Chollian at 7:19 a.m., indicating that the satellite has reached a correct orbital path. Additional contacts are to be made with ground stations in Hawaii, Italy and Chile for around-the-clock communications uplink with COMS.

First communication with state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) -- in charge of the satellite -- is expected to take place 10 days after liftoff.

A series of tests will be conducted on its onboard equipment in the coming months with communications, maritime observation and weather services to be offered from December.

The ministry said if there are no unforeseen problems, the satellite should start to deploy its solar panels and use its small booster rockets to reach stable orbital altitude of 36,000 kilometers in the next eight days

[Ken522]

Cool - South Korea now has it’s very own spy satellite to look at North Korea!

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

My thoughs exactly.

[SunkenCiv]

and meanwhile, north of the frontier, in Korean territory occupied by the illegal Pyongyang regime:

• North Koreans Shun New Won
  (currency reform leads to death of NK currency)

[bigheadfred]

Used to be this. Don't know if it is updated. Having some trouble linking it. Maybe it's my Java? Pick the J track 3D. Trying to link that. Gives you an interactive map.

http://science.nasa.gov/realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3D.html

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks bigheadfred!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks bigheadfred!

[bigheadfred]

I don’t see COMS on the list of satellites, but probably hasn’t been added. Looks like they have just about all the others.