The South Korean Ministry of Defense announced that the country’s first domestic military spy satellite was launched with SpaceX’s Falcon-9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in the US state of California at 10.19. The satellite entered orbit approximately after 4 minutes and successfully communicated with the ground station at 11.37.

It was stated that independent surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities will be maximized for effective competition with North Korea, which sent its first spy satellite on November 21, and 4 more military spy satellites are planned to be sent into space by 2025.