South Korea’s Arirang-5 multipurpose satellite that lifted off from Russia on Thursday has made its first successful contact with a ground station in Daejeon.
 
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute in Daejeon said it made its first successful contact with the satellite at around 5:34 a.m. Friday and the contact lasted for eleven minutes and 44 seconds.
 
The institute added the satellite’s solar panels properly unfolded at around 6:30 a.m. and the satellite’s synthetic aperture radar and antenna are all operating normally.
 
With 80 percent of its operations system locally produced, the Arirang-5 can take photos of the Earth at any time of the day regardless of the weather. It will collect data on natural disasters and carry out reconnaissance missions for the next five years.
 
With the successful launch of the Arirang-5, South Korea has become the sixth nation in the world to hold a satellite that can observe the Earth even under unfavorable weather conditions.