한국항공우주연구원

◇ Successful separation from the launch vehicle 34 minutes after the launch and entry into the target orbit
◇ Successful first contact with the earth station (Dongara, Australia) at 06:16 a.m.

□The Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT)(Minister, You Young Min) and the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA) announced that the GEO-KOMPSAT-2A (Cheollian 2A) was successfully launched from French Guiana at 05:37 on December 5 (17:37 December 4 KST).

◦ Cheollian 2A separated from the Ariane-5 launch vehicle at an altitude of 2,340km about 34 minutes (06:11 a.m.) after the launch. Successful contact with the earth station in Dongara, Australia was made 5 minutes later (39 minutes after the launch) at 06:16 a.m. (18:16 local time).
* A network of four overseas earth stations (Fucino in Italy; WASC (Western Australia Space Center) in Dongara, Australia; Santiago in Chile; and South Point in Hawaii, U.S.) are used to maintain 24-hour communications with the satellite during the initial operation period.

◦ The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) verified the system status of Cheollian 2A through communications with the earth stations and confirmed that the satellite had securely entered the first elliptical orbit reached by the launch vehicle.

◦ Cheollian 2A will approach the geostationary orbit (36,000km altitude) from the transition orbit by making five orbit maneuvers using the satellite thruster in the next two weeks. After entering the geostationary orbit, Cheollian 2A will provide meteorological services beginning in July next year after in-orbit testing for about six months.

□ Cheollian 2A will use its world’s best meteorological observation payload to transmit high-resolution color images, with four times the resolution of Cheollian 1, to the ground (National Weather Satellite Center, etc.) every 10 minutes (every two minutes in the case of dangerous weather).

◦ The high-resolution color images enable the identification of cloud, smoke, forest fire smoke, yellow dust, volcanic ash etc. This will improve the accuracy of meteorological analysis and also allow the pre-detection, at least two hours beforehand, of localized heavy rain, which was difficult to forecast in the past. Moreover, as the tracking of an eye of a storm will be possible, the tracking accuracy of storm paths will be improved.

◦Whereas Cheollian 1 provided 16 types of weather information, Cheollian 2A will provide 52 types of weather information by detecting not only the precipitation intensity but also forest fires, yellow dust, ozone, and sulfur dioxide. This will expand the services provided to the public that are closely related to their daily lives.

◦ Moreover, the satellite is expected to contribute to space weather monitoring and related research by providing Korea’s first space weather observation service. This service will acquire and provide information such as sunspot explosions and geomagnetic storms that hinder normal operations of satellites using the domestically developed space weather payload.

□“We were able to develop and acquire an independent platform for a 3.5-ton geostationary orbit satellite with the successful launch of this satellite. Thus, we are now in a position to be able to provide various satellite services utilizing this platform. We will not only provide more accurate weather services, but also relevant information that are essential to the everyday life and safety of the public, such as information about forest fires, yellow dust, and ozone.” said Choi Won-ho, Head of the Space, Nuclear & Big Science Policy Bureau at MSIT.