The mission's first two launch attempts failed, with the third one succeeding on 21 November 2023. This was also the first successful flight of North Korea's new launch vehicle, the Chollima-1.[3]
Description
Malligyong-1 is North Korea's first spy satellite.[4] It is in a sun-synchronous orbit at about 500 kilometres (310 mi) altitude,[5] and will provide a global optical imaging surveillance capability of several countries.[6][7] The resolution of the imaging capability is not generally known,[8][9][10][11] but according to Daily NK, the Malligyong-1's imagery resolution is lower than the resolution of Google's satellite imagery.[12]
Daily NK also stated that the satellite used Japanese camera, but it was alleged to be not capable of providing meaningful military surveillance data.[12]
History
First attempt
The first launch attempt occurred on 31 May 2023. The second stage of the launch vehicle, Chollima-1, ignited too early into the mission, causing the mission to fail.[7] Evacuation alerts were issued in Seoul and Okinawa Prefecture.[13] The North Korean government quickly announced the launch failure.[14]
The remains crashed into the Yellow Sea[2] and South Korea attempted to salvage the remainder of the rocket, searching a site 200 kilometres (120 mi) off the coast of Eocheongdo. The South Korean Ministry of Defence released an image of a white cylinder, suspected to be a part of the rocket.[14]
A second launch attempt of the satellite took place on 23 August 2023, again onboard a Chollima-1 launch vehicle. The launch resulted again in a failure with the loss of the satellite, this time caused by an error in the emergency flight termination system during the third-stage flight.[16]
Third attempt
A third launch attempt was initially scheduled to take place in October 2023 but was later moved to November due to some delays in fixing the technical issues that caused the previous failures. The launch took place on 21 November 2023. The South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted its counterpart in the North, the Korean Central News Agency, as saying the satellite had been successfully inserted in the predetermined orbit, resulting in the first successful flight of the Chollima-1 launch vehicle.[3] However, no immediate independent observations could be made.[17] The probe has been confirmed to be in orbit, however, its status is not known.[18]
On 27 February 2024, South Korean Defense Minister, Shin Won-sik stated that there were no signs of Malligyong-1 being operational, as well as the possibility of a satellite launch by North Korea in March 2024.[19]
According to Dutch astronomer Marco Langbroek, between 18 and 24 February 2024, Malligyong-1 had made orbital raising maneuvers to prolong time in orbit and to circularize its orbit, this has demonstrated that satellite has on-board propulsion and is communicating with ground communication stations in North Korea.[20][21] Commands for orbit raising maneuvers were transmitted from North Korea.[22] Further orbital raising maneuvers were made from 3-7 June 2024, 6-10 September 2024 and 16-18 January 2025.[23][24][25]
Fourth attempt
A fourth launch attempt of a new satellite, called Malligyong-1-1 (《만리경-1-1》호; lit. Telescope-1-1), took place on 27 May 2024, onboard an unnamed new launch vehicle using liquid-oxygen and petroleum propellants. The launch resulted again in a failure with the loss of the satellite.[26]
^ ab"[2보] 북한 "정찰위성 성공적 발사…궤도에 정확히 진입"" [[2nd step] North Korea “Successfully launched a reconnaissance satellite… entered the orbit accurately”]. Yonhap News Agency (in Korean). 21 November 2023. Retrieved 21 November 2023.
Launches are separated by dots ( • ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ). Crewed flights are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
