Photo satellite to fly July 28

Korea will launch the multipurpose Arirang 2 satellite on July 28 aboard a Russian launch vehicle, government officials said yesterday. The Science Ministry said the new satellite, bound for a low-Earth orbit, will be boosted into orbit from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, a space port located about 800 kilometers (500 miles) northeast of Moscow. The satellite will be used for geographical mapping, environmental monitoring and locating natural resources. It will supplement the Arirang 1, still in orbit about seven years after its launch. The new satellite has a camera with resolution more than 40 times better than its predecessor. It is multi-spectral, meaning it can take photographs in not only the visible light range but, for example, in infrared as well. It was developed by several Korean and one Israeli company. Its resolution is impressive, but not startling. The ministry said that in black and white photography, an area on the ground of about 1 square meter (10 square feet) would appear about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Some U.S. intelligence satellites, by comparison, can reportedly resolve 15 square centimeters to that same dot. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute said it has signed a $27 million agreement with France’s Spot Image Co. to provide the French company with photographs taken during the satellite’s estimated three-year life span. The satellite is scheduled to be launched shortly after 4 p.m., Korea time, and will, if all goes well, separate from its booster rocket 48 minutes later. It is expected to make its first contact from space with the Malindi satellite station in Kenya 80 minutes after liftoff, and transmit directly to the institute’s control room in Daejeon at about 11 p.m. If the launch is successful, the satellite will be Korea’s ninth. by Wohn Dong-hee, Park Bang-ju