Nuri Rocket to Launch 'Quintuplet Satellites': Attempting Separation While Rotating 180 Degrees [XR]

[Anchor]

A record-breaking 15 satellites will be launched aboard the upcoming Nuri rocket. The core of this mission is to place five ultra-small cluster satellites for Earth reconnaissance into orbit. To achieve this, the mission will attempt a so-called "attitude maneuver rotation," which has never been tried before.

Reporter Jeong Gu-hui has the details.

[Reporter]

The ultra-small cluster satellites are loaded into the very top of the Nuri rocket, which stands tall at the launch site.

Up to the fourth launch, there was only one main payload satellite performing the core mission, but this time, as many as five satellites are on board.

These are quintuplet satellites designed to perform Earth observation missions using cameras.

The five satellites will orbit the same path, rotating around the Earth at 72-degree intervals—dividing the 360-degree orbit into five equal parts—to photograph targets on the ground.

However, spreading out the distances between the satellites over two to three months is no easy task.

The third stage of this Nuri launch will take on a high-difficulty mission to maximize the spacing between the five satellites while continuously changing its attitude.

After separating the first satellite, the body will tilt by 60 degrees to release the second satellite, and then separate the third at a 90-degree angle.

Flying at 7.5 kilometers per second—about 10 times the speed of a bullet—precisely controlling the attitude at intervals of 35 to 40 seconds is the most difficult challenge of this mission.

The mission will be a success once the fourth satellite is separated at 120 degrees, and the final fifth satellite is released after flipping the body 180 degrees.

With these 5 satellites being launched now and another 5 scheduled for the 6th launch next year, a complete constellation of 10 satellites will be able to observe the Korean Peninsula more than three times a day, and in particular, re-photograph the same location within 24 hours.

[Lee Sang-hyun / Director, KAIST Advanced Small Satellite Research Center: It will enable the establishment of a high-frequency, precise, near-real-time monitoring system, which we expect can be used quickly and accurately for national security, disasters, and calamities.]

Through this 5th launch, South Korea's space industry is expected to secure mass-production technology for manufacturing satellites in large quantities, alongside cluster operation technology.

(Video Editing: Jeon Min-gyu, Video Reporting: Choi Dae-woong, PD: Han Seung-ho, XR: Kim Han-gil, JUNHO, Kim Min-young)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.