SEOUL, October 9 (AJP) — South Korea’s DaejeonSAT-1 established two-way communication with a ground station on its sixth attempt after five failed contacts, with key satellite systems confirmed to be operating normally.
The CubeSat made its first successful two-way contact at around 11:20 p.m. Wednesday and communicated again at about 12:46 a.m. Thursday, according to the Daejeon city government.
DaejeonSAT-1 had separated normally from the Nuri rocket and entered its target orbit but failed to secure a stable signal during its first five communication attempts through Wednesday afternoon.
Possible causes of the earlier communication failures included the satellite’s elevation angle, radio-frequency interference and noise at the ground station, according to the city.
Checks following the successful contact showed the satellite’s battery, attitude-control system, rotational speed and GPS reception were operating normally.
The city also confirmed that the satellite’s electro-optical camera was pointing toward Earth, indicating that DaejeonSAT-1 was operating stably.
Further communication sessions will be used to check solar-power generation and other systems before the satellite begins full-scale operations, including Earth observation.
DaejeonSAT-1 was carried into orbit aboard South Korea’s fifth Nuri launch, which lifted off from the Naro Space Center in Goheung on October 7.
The Korea AeroSpace Administration said Nuri reached its target altitude and successfully deployed five primary microsatellites and nine CubeSats into their planned orbits.
DaejeonSAT-1 was jointly developed by the Daejeon city government and five local space companies — Step Lab, CSO, EPSTech, MID and CONTEC.
The satellite carries technologies developed by the participating companies, including an electro-optical camera, solar panels, a power-control unit and space-grade memory.
The mission is designed to verify those components in the space environment and give participating companies flight heritage for future satellite and space-component projects. Daejeon plans to begin full operations once communications, power and attitude-control systems are fully checked.
AJP Takeaways
- DaejeonSAT-1 established its first two-way communication with a ground station on its sixth attempt after five earlier attempts failed.
- Daejeon city said key systems including battery power, attitude control, GPS reception and camera orientation were operating normally.
- The CubeSat was developed with five Daejeon-based space companies and carries locally developed components for in-orbit verification.
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