South Korea’s home-built Nuri (KSLV-II) rocket lifted off from the Naro Space Center in Goheung at 03:25 UTC (12:25 local time) on 7 October 2026. It carried a record 15 satellites, about 1,071 kg in total, towards a 570 km sun-synchronous orbit: five NEONSAT Earth-observation microsatellites and ten cubesats. All five NEONSATs separated and had contacted the ground by the evening, but one cubesat, Quaternion’s PERSAT02, failed to separate from the rocket. It was Nuri’s fourth success in five launches since its failed debut in 2021, and the next five NEONSATs are due to fly in 2027. Our take: Nuri is turning from a test rocket into a working launcher — and South Korea’s first satellite constellation is now taking shape.
14/15satellites deployed
570 kmtarget orbit