First signal received at Daejeon ground station 6 hours 38 minutes after launch
A next-generation satellite set to transform South Korea's agriculture and forestry sectors established its first communication link just over six and a half hours after launch.
The Korea Forest Service announced that CAS500-4 successfully made first contact with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute ground station in Daejeon at 10:50 p.m. Tuesday (Korean Standard Time), approximately 6 hours and 38 minutes after liftoff — following three earlier exchanges with overseas ground stations.
During the initial contact, the Daejeon ground station confirmed whether the solar panels had deployed successfully and checked the satellite's onboard systems for anomalies. Further communications are planned to carry out additional tasks, including deployment of the X-band antenna, activation of the attitude control system actuators and functional checks.
After an initial operations phase, CAS500-4 is scheduled to begin full-scale operations in 2027, providing data for agricultural and forestry monitoring as well as disaster response, including wildfire tracking.
kwonhl@heraldcorp.com
