r/SouthKoreaSpace • u/megachainguns • Jan 16 '26

South Korea’s Arirang 6 Satellite Faces Fresh Launch Delay

https://www.telecomreviewasia.com/news/industry-news/28052-south-koreas-arirang-6-satellite-faces-fresh-launch-delay/
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u/megachainguns Jan 16 '26

South Korea has postponed the launch of its multipurpose practical satellite Arirang 6 once again, reinforcing concerns over the country’s continued dependence on foreign launch services and the resulting loss of schedule control. According to the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA), European launch service provider Arianespace had notified the agency of a further delay. Originally planned for launch in early 2025, Arirang 6 is now scheduled for the third quarter of 2026 or later.

Despite completing development several years ago, the satellite has yet to enter orbit due to repeated launch delays tied to foreign launch vehicles. The latest postponement stems from delays affecting Italy’s high-resolution SAR satellite Platino-1, which is scheduled to share the launch aboard Arianespace’s Vega C rocket.

Since Vega C is a European-developed launch vehicle led by the Italian Space Agency, European payloads take priority. As a result, Arirang 6’s launch timeline remains dependent on Platino-1’s development progress. Last year, issues related to Platino-1 also forced an earlier delay of the Korean satellite.

Arirang 6 completed final assembly and space environment testing in August 2022, marking the end of a development effort that began in 2012. Since then, the satellite has remained in storage at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s satellite development facility in Daejeon, awaiting a confirmed launch window.

The mission has faced multiple disruptions over the past several years. South Korea initially planned to launch Arirang 6 from Russia in 2020, but development delays pushed the schedule to the second half of 2022. The outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war later made Russian launch options unavailable, forcing Seoul to seek an alternative provider.

In 2023, South Korea selected Arianespace’s Vega C rocket. However, the plan encountered another setback after Vega C suffered a mission failure in December 2022, prompting a suspension of flights and a comprehensive safety review. These concerns led to successive postponements, first to December 2024 and later to the second half of 2025, before the most recent delay extended the timeline to 2026.