spacetoday.net: Rockot launches Korean satellite

Posted: Fri, Jul 28, 2006, 7:46 PM ET (2346 GMT)
Rockot launch of KOMPSAT-2 (Eurockot)

A Rockot vehicle successfully launched a South Korean imaging satellite Friday on the first mission for the small Russian launcher since a failed launch last year. The Rockot lifted off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia at 3:05 am EDT (0705 GMT) and placed the KOMPSAT-2 satellite into a 685-km Sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite, also known as Arirang-2, was built by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute in South Korea. The 800-kg spacecraft carries a resolution camera with a resolution of 1 meter in black-and-white mode. While officially a technology demonstration and earth sciences mission, some have suspected the South Korean government will use the spacecraft to spy on neighboring North Korea. The launch was the first for the Rockot, a converted SS-19 ballistic missile, since the October 2005 launch of ESA's CryoSat mission. That launch failed when the rocket's second stage failed to shut down at the appropriate time.