SpaceX to launch five South Korean reconnaissance satellites

The South Korean government has signed a contract with SpaceX to launch five Project 425 satellites. The first of them will be launched into orbit by a Falcon 9 rocket at the end of 2023.

Launch of the Falcon 9 rocket. Source: NASA

“Project 425” is a program for the creation of reconnaissance spacecraft, mainly designed to track North Korea. Within its framework, it is planned to build five satellites. Four of them will be equipped with synthetic aperture radars. The fifth will receive a telescope designed to obtain images in both the visible and infrared range. The devices will operate in orbits with a height of 600-700 km and, according to existing estimates, will be able to obtain images of the Earth’s surface with a resolution of up to 30 cm. The total cost of the program is USD 970 million. The launch of the first satellite will take place at the end of 2023, the remaining spacecraft should be put into orbit by 2025.

It should be noted that this is the second time that South Korea hires SpaceX to launch military satellites. The first cooperation took place in 2020, when the Falcon 9 rocket launched the Anasis-2 communications satellite into geostationary orbit.

According to https://spacenews.com

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