Two-way communication between the ground station and the next-generation small satellite No. 2, which was put into orbit aboard the Korean launch vehicle Nuri (KSLV-II), was successfully achieved at dawn today (26th).

The Ministry of Science and ICT made the announcement at a briefing at the Sejong Government Building today.

Following the one-way communication after yesterday's launch, and today's two-way transition, including remote commands, the third launch of the Nuri has been virtually completed with the launch vehicle taking off and flying, launching the satellite, and operating the main payload satellite.

This makes South Korea the first country to actually succeed in launching its own practical satellites.

However, the cube satellites, which are sub-payload satellites, have only partially communicated with each other.

The Korea Astronomical Research Institute's cube satellite 'Toyosat' communicated with only 3 out of 4 satellites, and only 2 out of 3 corporate cube satellites were confirmed to receive satellite signals.

According to the Ministry of Science and Technology, the next-generation small satellite No. 2, which was launched aboard the Nuri at 6:24 p.m. yesterday, successfully landed in the target orbit and successfully communicated in both directions with the ground station of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) Satellite Research Institute.

Following the first satellite signal reception at Sejong Base in Antarctica at around 2:7 p.m. yesterday and the initial communication through the Daejeon ground station at about 07:7 p.m., seven more communications were successfully made through Daejeon and overseas ground stations this morning.

In today's communication, we received the satellite's remote meter reading information and checked whether the satellite attitude is in a normal sun-oriented state.

In addition, the Ministry of Science and Technology explained that the transmission and reception functions of the communication system of the satellite, the function of the command and data processing system, and the power generation function of the solar panel of the power meter were all checked and confirmed that they were all normal.

Toyosat is attempting sequential communication by satellite, with Unit 58 (Garam) receiving satellite signals yesterday, and Unit 7 (Narae) receiving satellite signals and conducting two-way communication around 1:2 a.m. today.

However, Unit 6 (Raon) and Unit 40 (Dasol), which was not properly confirmed yesterday, have not yet received satellite signals, so we decided to continue trying to communicate.

Among the corporate cube satellites, Lumir's LUMIR-T4 confirmed the signal at 3:1 p.m. yesterday, and KSAT7U at 53:3 p.m., the ministry explained.

The remaining 11 will be followed by satellite signal reception and communication attempts.

The Director of Giant Public Research Policy at the Ministry of Chosun Science and Technology said, "Now that the ground station communication of the next-generation small satellite No. 7 has been successful, we will do our best to ensure that the communication and mission of the remaining satellites can proceed well in the future."

(Photo = Courtesy of Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Yonhap News)