South Korea readies multipurpose satellite for launch
June 26, 2026

By Chris Forrester



South Korea plans to launch its fourth next-generation medium-sized satellite on July 9th, with final preparations under way at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, the country’s space agency says.

Oh Tae-seok, administrator of the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA), announced the plan during a meeting with reporters at the agency’s headquarters in Sacheon, about 300 kilometres southeast of Seoul, on June 24th.


The 500-kilogram Earth observation satellite will be jointly utilised by the Rural Development Administration and the Korea Forest Service for applications such as crop growth analysis and wildfire monitoring.

The launch will mark KASA’s third satellite mission in less than a year, following the successful deployment of Multipurpose Satellite 7 in December and next-generation medium-sized satellite No. 2 in May. Both satellites are currently operating normally and carrying out their missions.

However, another craft, South Korea’s latest multipurpose satellite, Arirang 6, is facing a fresh delay due to setbacks in the development of a foreign co-passenger satellite that was scheduled to share a Vega-C rocket operated by European launch service provider Arianespace. The launch date for Arirang 6 had originally been slated for launch in the second half of 2026, but the schedule is now expected to be pushed back to the second quarter of 2027, Oh Tae-seok said.