한국항공우주연구원

□The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MISP) and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) disclosed that they had held the meeting of the ‘101st Multipurpose Satellite Development Project Implementation Committee’ on October 2 and decided not to extend the mission of the Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 2, but instead use it for research purposes until the end of its life cycle.
ㅇ Although the Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 2 was originally designed to have a life cycle of 3 years, this was extended three times (by two years each time, for a total of 6 years) by applying highly reliable satellite technology. As such, it has successfully carried out its mission of obtaining images of the Korean Peninsula and other major areas of the world over a period of nine years.
ㅇ From now on it will be used in next-generation satellite technology research without any further extension of its mission until the end of its life cycle, as its operation systems - such as its payload module, sensor, and earth station operation system (command transmission and satellite condition analysis) - are aged.

□ Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 2 was a milestone, since the basis for the development of Korean model was established and the foundation of space industrialization was laid by investing KRW 263.3 billion from 1999 to 2006 to secure the design, fabrication, assembly, and testing capability led by Korean technology based on the experience in the joint international development of Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 1.
ㅇ The satellite was designed and fabricated jointly by KARI and 29 Korean companies, while the payload was jointly developed with ELOP in Israel (20 technical professionals dispatched during 4 years).
ㅇ The development of the Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 2 resulted in 91.5% self-sufficiency (54 out of 59 key technologies secured) in terms of satellite design and 65.2% self-sufficiency (30 out of 46 key technologies secured) in satellite parts fabrication, thereby establishing the basis for Korean self-sufficiency in the space technology sector.
ㅇ By developing Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 2, which is a low orbit earth observation satellite, Korea became the 7th country in the world to own a 1m class high- resolution satellite, and successfully established a strategic milestone for cooperation and the sharing of satellite information.

□ Over the past 9 years, Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 2 has circled the earth some 46,800 times and communicated with the earth around 26,000 times. It has acquired 75,400 sheets of images of Korea and 2,448,300 sheets of images of the rest of the world, thus playing a key role in building up the nation’s image assets.

□ Of the images thus obtained, some 45,350 sheets were utilized by the public and private sectors for national territory management, disaster management, environmental and ocean pollution analysis, crop cultivation and production analysis, etc. with the aim of improving public convenience. The images are said to have contributed to proving the value of satellite information and to creating a new satellite information-based industry.
ㅇ The import replacement effect (compared to the import of images without developing the Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 2) of the 43,450 sheets of images is estimated to amount to KRW 532.3 billion, which is more than twice the KRW 263.3 billion invested to develop the satellite.
* Import replacement amount = No. of sheets of images distributed × Price per sheet (i.e. KRW 11.75 million per sheet in the global market as of 2012)

□ The images have been available in the global commercial satellite image service market since June 2007, realizing exports of KRW 21.6 billion through the sale of image data to Europe and other leading countries and laying the foundations for entry into the satellite image market.
ㅇ Korea joined the ‘International Charter’, an international program for cooperation on the management of disasters, in July 2011 and has been providing satellite images for humanitarian purposes including various disaster relief efforts (i.e. flooding in Nigeria and an earthquake in Turkey). It has also played a key role in contributing to the international community and improving the national status of Korea.

□ In the future, Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 2 will be utilized for the research and development of next-generation satellite technology, including improvement of the payload performance and orbit change technology. It will also continue its mission of earth observation to improve national security and the quality of life until the end of its life cycle.

□ The MSIP disclosed that the system and main body of Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 2, which were entirely developed, assembled and tested in Korea, are the pride of Korea’s space technology and have proved the excellence of Korea’s satellite technology through successful long-term operation.
ㅇ It added that the satellite would work with Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 3 (launched in May 2012), Korea Multipurpose Satellite 5 (launched in August 2013) and Korea Multi-purpose Satellite 3A (launched in March 2015), all of which are currently in operation, in an effort to fulfill the demand for national satellite utilization, and that the ministry planned to actively develop key technologies for the application in the private sector and to promote the relevant industries.