North Korea has conducted a second “important scientific satellite” test over the Pacific Ocean, North Korean news agency KCNA said Monday, which would indicate progress in the country’s missile and nuclear weapons programs.
North Korea’s state television broadcaste
North Korea’s state television broadcaster announced the successful launch of its second spy satellite on 17 January, saying that the “important” launch was aimed at finding “peace and tranquillity”.
The broadcast showed pictures of leader Kim Jong Un with senior military officials and generals giving him an ovation as he presides over a representation of a missile in what it described as an underground facility.
Instead of adopting other spacefaring nations’ custom of placing an entire test or operational imaging satellite into orbit for days to months, the North appears to have chosen to use a rocket booster to lift key components of a satellite imaging system up to operational altitudes for a few minutes of testing (if not years). The high failure rate of prior North Korean spacecraft, which included apparent failures in all three of the categories mentioned in the February 28 statement—satellite stabilisation, the image payload, and data transmission—could have been a contributing factor.
It was the second such launch in a week to test satellite equipment, and the ninth missile launch this year.
The Hwasong 12 rocket carrying the Earth observation satellite lifted off Sunday morning from the Sunan area near Pyongyang, just days after it carried out a similar test on Wednesday which failed
North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration (NADA) and the Academy of Defence Science conducted the launch “under the plan of developing a reconnaissance satellite,” KCNA reported. “Through the test, the NADA confirmed the reliability of data transmission and reception system of the satellite, its control command system and various ground-based control systems,” KCNA said.
Edited by: Kiran Maharana
Published by: Pawan Rajput
