SEOUL, KOREA – The Korean government will decide this week on the much-delayed launch of the Arirang-5 or Korean Multipurpose Satellite 5, which was postponed to May owing to internal issues in the Russian Defense Ministry.
On Sunday, Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said, “The scheduled launch of the Arirang 5, which was cancelled by the Russian President, will likely proceed.
The KRW 240 billion project to build the Arirang 5, a satellite equipped with an all-weather monitoring system (an SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar)) was completed in April of 2011. It was supposed to be launched in August of the same year, but the Russian government put off the launch to the second half of 2012 and again to May, 2013. The Russian Defense Ministry was known to have derailed the planned launch after it demanded more money from international space company Kosmotras.
The head of KARI said, “The Russian Defense Minister was sacked over corruption charges. And the Russian President is known to have given the go-ahead on the launch of three satellites including the Arirang 5. The Russian Federal Space Agency (ROSCOSMOS) is also positive about the launches.
Sean Chung (hbpark@etnews.com)
**Article provided by etnews [Korea IT News]
[Reference] : http://english.etnews.com/electronics/2715655_1303.html
