STSat-2A (Science and Technology Satellite-2A) was a

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

launched by the

Korea Aerospace Research Institute The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI; ), established in 1989, is the aeronautics and space agency of South Korea. Its main laboratories are located in Daejeon, in the Daedeok Science Town. KARI's vision is to continue building upon in ...

(KARI), the national space agency of

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, from the

Naro Space Center The Naro Space Center is a South Korean spaceport in South Jeolla's Goheung, Goheung County, operated by the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute. The spaceport is located about south of Seoul. It includes two launch pads, a contro ...

Goheung County Goheung County () is a county in Jeollanam-do Province, South Korea. Naro Space Center The Naro Space Center was completed during 2008 in southern Goheung and is operated by the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute. The space center inc ...

South Jeolla South Jeolla Province (), formerly South Chŏlla Province, also known as Jeonnam (), is a province in the Honam region, South Korea, and the southernmost province in mainland Korea. South Jeolla borders the provinces of North Jeolla to the nor ...

using the

Naro-1 Naro-1 (), previously designated the Korea Space Launch Vehicle or KSLV (also KSLV-1), was South Korea's first carrier rocket, and the first South Korean launch vehicle to achieve low Earth orbit, Earth orbit. On January 30, 2013, the third Naro ...

(KSLV-1)

launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...

Spacecraft

The

KAIST Satellite Technology Research Center KAIST Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC; ), is a university based research center for satellite technology and applications research. Space Programme SaTReC, which is located within the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technolo ...

(SaTReC) developed STSat-2A as a

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

observation, satellite laser ranging and engineering and technology demonstration sponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology. It was expected to be operational for about two years, and was scheduled to be launched between 2005 and 2007. The Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) instrument was intended to measure the orbit of STSAT-2A, in order to investigate variations in its orbit. It was a follow-up to STSat-1, which was launched using a

Kosmos-3M The Kosmos-3M ( meaning "''Cosmos''", GRAU index 11K65M) was a Russian space launch vehicle, member of the Kosmos (rocket family), Kosmos rocket family. It was a liquid-fueled two-stage launch vehicle, first launched in 1967 and with over 420 s ...

rocket on 27 September 2003. Originally a Dual-channel Radiometers for Earth and Atmosphere Monitoring (DREAM)

microwave radiometer A microwave radiometer (MWR) is a radiometer that measures energy emitted at one millimeter-to-metre wavelengths (frequencies of 0.3–300 GHz) known as microwaves. Microwave radiometers are very sensitive receivers designed to measure thermally ...

was intended as the principal payload of STSat-2A for an expected launch in 2007. The Laser Retroreflector Array (LRA) was described as an early expected payload for STSat-2A which would consist of nine retroreflectors in a mechanical casing.

Mission

STSat-2A has three missions: the indigenous research and development to place a satellite into

low Earth orbit A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an geocentric orbit, orbit around Earth with a orbital period, period of 128 minutes or less (making at least 11.25 orbits per day) and an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial object ...

, development of indigenous

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...

, and the ability to develop scientific payloads.

Launch

STSat-2A was launched on the maiden flight of the

launch vehicle, which lifted off the

, on the southern coast of South Korea at 08:00:33

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

on 25 August 2009. The launch failed to place STSat-2A into orbit after half of the payload fairing failed to separate. This resulted in the second stage being too heavy to reach orbit, and it fell back to

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

along with the satellite. A second satellite, STSat-2B, was launched on 10 June 2010, but the launch vehicle failed again.

References

External links

{{Orbital launches in 2009 Satellites of South Korea Earth observation satellites Satellite launch failures Spacecraft launched in 2009

Spacecraft

Mission

Launch

See also

References

External links