한국항공우주연구원

Korea’s first communication, ocean and meteorological satellite, dubbed Cheollian, was launched successfully atop the French Ariane 5-ECA rocket at 6:41am on June 27 (local time 6:41pm, June 26) from the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guinea.

At 7:19am, 38 minutes after liftoff, Cheollian opened communications as planned with the Dongara Ground Station in Australia, confirming its successful insertion in to the transfer orbit, the initial elliptical orbit with a perigee of 251 km and an apogee of 35,857 km. This is the first in the three stages required to enter the final geostationary orbit. All systems on the satellite have been verified to be nominal.

Following the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) protocol, Cheollian will attempt to communicate with ground stations along the orbit, including the Dongara (Australia), South Point (Hawaii), Fucino (Italy) and Santiago (Chile) stations over the next 24 hours.

For the LEOP operations, a group of around 30 Korean and French experts will monitor the ground network and the satellite status in real-time.

Three hours after launch, the satellite will partially deploy its solar panels, after which it will take three engine firings and eight days for Cheollian to reach a geostationary orbit. Once in the drift orbit, the satellite is due to fully deploy the solar panels as well as the communication antennas.

Cheollian’s first contact with the Korean operations center in the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) in Daejeon is scheduled to take place about ten days after liftoff. Thereafter, the satellite will undergo various function tests and adjustments in the drift orbit for six months before going into full service in late December.

As the world’s first multipurpose geostationary satellite capable of performing communication, ocean and meteorological functions, Cheollian will be in operations 36,000 km above the Korean Peninsula for the next seven years.