Korea to launch world's first air monitoring satellite Wednesday

Choi Jae-dong, director of satellite program at Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), speaks with a joint press corps at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, Monday (local time), a day ahead of launching the world's first geostationary environmental monitoring satellite. / Joint Press Corps

By Baek Byung-yeul, Joint Press Corps

Seen is a carrier rocket Ariane-5, which will carry the Chollian-2B satellite, is stationed to be launched at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, Monday (local time). / Joint Press Corps

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is confident that the launch of the world's first geostationary environmental monitoring satellite, the Chollian-2B, scheduled for Wednesday, will proceed as planned, a director responsible for the development of the satellite, said Tuesday.

“When we kicked off the development of the Chollian-2 series in July 2011, many people doubted whether we would be able to make it with our own technology, but we overcame challenges over the past eight years to develop it on our own,” Choi Jae-dong told a joint press corps at the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana.

The Chollian-2B will be launched from the space center in South America aboard an Ariane-5 carrier rocket at 7:18 a.m. (KST)

Once it enters into orbit, the multi-purpose satellite will circle the earth at 11,000 kilometer per hour and will observe the generation, migration and extinction of environmental pollutants such as fine and yellow dusts, and marine conditions around the Korean Peninsula.

Recalling the development of the satellite, Choi said KARI engineers had great difficulty in procuring the required technologies,.

“When we jointly developed the Chollian-1 with the companies in Europe we were openly disregarded by them. We were not even allowed to visit their offices and had to stay in a container. That experience made us set up the goal of developing a satellite with our own technology and led us to develop the world's first geostationary environmental monitoring satellite,” Choi said.

Choi is one of the pioneers of satellite technology in Korea after joining the development program for KITSAT-3, nicknamed “Uribyol” (our star in Korean), in 1994. He was appointed as director of Chollian satellite development in April 2018, and led the production of the Chollian-2A and the Chollian-2B.

While KARI developed certain systems for the satellite locally, the air monitoring equipment was a joint development with companies from Europe and the U.S.

“As we jointly developed the payload, our engineers could get good experience thanks to the support from engineers from overseas,” he said.

The director said the development of the indigenous satellite platform will help the country earn more opportunities

Choi added KARI also plans to develop an improved geostationary satellite for emergency telecommunications in disaster situations.

“We are preparing to develop a geostationary satellite to be used in telecommunications for disaster relief. We've set a goal to launch it in 2027 to replace the communications mission that Chollian-1 is currently performing,” he said.