The government signed three contracts with foreign organizations last year, worth a total of 22 million dollars, for the provision of high-resolution images taken by its Arirang Two multipurpose satellite.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology says that under the contracts with the European Space Agency (ESA) and two foreign defense and intelligence-related organizations, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) opens ten image transmission channels to the Svalbard Kongsberg Satellite Service station in Norway.

The institute added that the Arirang Two provided 69 different domestic organizations with over 600 photos.

The Arirang Two was launched in July 2006 and currently circles the Earth 14 times a day at an average altitude of 685 kilometers.