Cheollian 2B under preparation without a hitch for the February 19 launch
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2020-02-11
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Cheollian 2B under preparation without a hitch for the February 19 launch
◇ The satellite body and environmental/marine payload conditions are all normal; scheduled to be transported to the launch site around February 17 after the final inspection by early February
□ The Ministry of Science and ICT (MIST) disclosed that the Cheollian 2B introduced in the Report of the Presidential Office on the State of the Union on January 16 is being prepared without a hitch for the launch on February 19.
ㅇ Cheollian 2B is expected to identify the source of fine dust flowing into Korea by observing fine dust and fine dust-inducing substances in East Asia from the geostationary orbit for the first time in the world.
ㅇ The plan is to interface it with the geostationary fine dust observation satellites launched by the US (TEMPO, launched after 2022) and Europe (Sentinel-4, launched after 2023) to contribute to the establishment of a global environmental surveillance system.
ㅇ Moreover, it will also be used for the protection of the marine environment, management of water resources, and marine safety by observing marine pollutants such as green algae, red tide, and oil spills in the waters of the Korean Peninsula.
□ Cheollian 2B left the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) in Daejeon on January 5 and arrived at the Guiana Space Center around January 6 via air transport.
ㅇ The KARI research team also moved to the Guiana Space Center and began the on-site preparation for the launch. They first performed close inspection of the satellite body and environmental/marine payloads and confirmed that they were all in normal state and could be seamlessly connected to the launch vehicle (Ariane-5). The team is currently focusing on inspecting the battery and the propulsion system.
ㅇ Cheollian 2B will go through the final inspection by early February, and then it will be loaded into the launch vehicle. A launch rehearsal will be performed a week before the launch, and the satellite will be transported to the launch platform two days before the launch and launched on February 19.
□“The development of Cheollian 2B as scheduled has enabled Korea to participate in the global environmental surveillance system in a leading position along with the US and Europe. We will continue to strengthen our satellite development capabilities to help Korea play a major role in global environmental monitoring and disaster response,” said Choi Weon-ho, director of Space, Nuclear & Big Science Policy at MIST.