Posted: Fri, Aug 23, 2013, 2:44 PM ET (1844 GMT)
A Dnepr rocket launched a South Korean radar imaging satellite on Thursday. The Dnepr rocket lifted off from Yasny missile base in southern Russia at 10:39 am EDT (1439 GMT) carrying the Kompsat-5 spacecraft (also known as Arirang-5), placing it into a 550-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit. The 1,400-kilogram satellite, built by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, carries a synthetic aperture radar payload that will be used for radar mapping. The launch was the first for the Dnepr, a converted SS-18 ICBM, since 2011.
