Seoul’s aerospace research institute confirmed that the Russian Angara-1.2 carrier rocket would put the South Korean KOMPSAT-6 satellite, also known as the Arirang 6, into orbit in 2020.
Earlier this month, Roscosmos space corporation said in a statement that the KOMPSAT-6 multipurpose satellite would be launched using Russia’s Angara-1.2.
“The ILS Angara 1.2 vehicle was evaluated as the most suitable to launch the Arirang 6 through international bidding after taking consideration of the price and credibility”, a Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) official said.
The Arirang 6 will be launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia. The satellite’s main mission will be to detect disasters.
In 2013, Seoul successfully launched the Arirang 5 satellite with the help of Russia’s Dnepr launch vehicle.
The Angara family of space-launch vehicles is designed to provide lifting capabilities of between 2 and 40.5 metric tons into low Earth orbit. It has been in development since 1995 and is the first orbit-capable rocket developed by Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union to replace the older Proton-M rockets. (Russian Aviation/Business World Magazine)