All 9 cubesats launched aboard Nuri rocket establish contact with ground stations

All nine cubesats carried into orbit aboard the fifth launch of South Korea's homegrown Nuri rocket have successfully established contact with ground stations. The time needed to make contact was significantly shorter than during the fourth launch, a sign that the rocket's precision satellite deployment capability has improved.

The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute announced Tuesday that all nine secondary payload satellites aboard Nuri's fifth flight, launched Wednesday, had made contact with their respective ground stations.

The rocket originally carried 10 secondary satellites, but one — Quaternion PersAt-2 — failed to separate. The remaining nine, which separated normally, all successfully received signals or data from ground stations and are currently undergoing initial checks ahead of full mission operations.

Space LiinTech's "B-1012," the Korea Aerospace Research Institute's "Domestic Component Space Verification Platform 2," the Unmanned Exploration Research Institute's "Ulysses," and Space&Bean's "SD1Sat" all achieved two-way communication on their first contact attempt on launch day.

Chosun University's space optical communications orbit verification satellite also established two-way contact at 11 p.m. on launch day, securing satellite operational data and imagery. Daejeon's "DaeJeonSat-1" achieved two-way communication at 11 p.m. Thursday and confirmed that its solar panels had deployed normally.

O&B Space's "Sledge," Cosmoworks' "Jack-007," and KAIST's "GBSat" also successfully received signals and data. Of these, Sledge and GBSat are pursuing two-way communication by attempting uplinks — transmitting commands from the ground station to the satellites.

The achievement carries significance beyond the successful satellite contacts, as it demonstrates that Nuri's space transportation technology has advanced to a new level.

By delivering satellites more accurately to their target orbits and providing more precise positional data, the rocket reduced the time ground stations needed to establish contact compared with previous missions.

The secondary satellites will next enter an initial operations phase to verify that all onboard systems — including the satellite bus and payload equipment — are functioning normally before beginning their full mission activities.

KASA chief Oh Tae-seok said the cubesats made contact far more quickly than they did after the fourth launch. "This is the result of the launch vehicle inserting the satellites into their target orbits more accurately and providing more precise positional data, meaning the level of technological maturity has risen by a notch," he said.

Oh added that the agency would continue to build on its space transportation mission capabilities.