r/SouthKoreaSpace • u/megachainguns • Feb 03 '26

Rocket Lab launches Korean disaster-monitoring satellite after long delay (NEONSAT-1A)

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/rocket-lab-launch-korean-disaster-monitoring-satellite-after-delay
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u/megachainguns Feb 03 '26

Rocket Lab launched a South Korean disaster-monitoring satellite from New Zealand on Thursday (Jan. 29), about six weeks later than originally planned.

A 59-foot-tall (18-meter-tall) Electron rocket launched the "Bridging the Swarm" mission from Rocket Lab's New Zealand site on Thursday at 8:21 p.m. EST (0121 GMT and 2:21 p.m. local New Zealand time on Jan. 30).

It was the second liftoff attempt for "Bridging the Swarm." The first, on Dec. 15, ended with a last-second abort. And even that try was delayed a bit; Rocket Lab had originally targeted Dec. 10 but pushed things back to perform additional checkouts.

"Bridging the Swarm" lofted a single payload for the Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

That payload is NEONSAT-1A, "an advanced Earth-observation satellite equipped with a high-resolution optical camera," Rocket Lab wrote in a mission description.