Secondary Payload Satellites Selected for Nuri's 5th Launch
- Seven CubeSats, including DaejeonSat-1 from Daejeon city, selected -
KASA (Administrator Yoon Youngbin) and KARI (President Lee Sang-cheol) announced on February 11th that they have selected a total of seven secondary payload satellites to be carried on Nuri's 5th launch. This decision follows a public call for proposals from industrial, research institutions, and government agencies (including local governments) from December 9th to January 3rd, with the selection made through expert evaluation.
The selected secondary payload satellites vary in size, including 3U, 6U, 12U, and 16U*, and will perform various missions as part of the 5th Nuri, the launch of which is scheduled for 2026. The 3U CubeSats selected include "SLEDGE" by ONBISpace, which aims to observe the ionosphere using GNSS** signals such as GPS, "PERSAT" by Quaternion for analyzing marine debris currents off the coast of Jeju Island, and "COMMAND v1" by Feregi Aerospace for monitoring space weather and capturing images of space debris.
* U refers to the standard unit of size for CubeSats, where 1U corresponds to a size of 10cm x 10cm x 10cm. For example, a CubeSat measuring 10cm x 10cm x 30cm is classified as 3U.
** Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) uses satellites orbiting the Earth to provide location, speed, and time information.
The 6U CubeSats selected include "UEL-Y-Sys" by Unmanned Exploration Laboratory for monitoring fine dust, and "Sejong 5" by Hancom InSpace for hyperspectral imaging for public use. The 12U CubeSat is "BEE-1012" by Space LiinTech, which aims to study protein drug crystal growth in space environments, and the 16U CubeSat is "DaejeonSat-1" by Daejeon City, for observing urban space changes and testing space components technology.
The Nuri 5th launch will carry 15 satellites in total, including the primary payload of small constellation satellites 2-6, seven CubeSats selected through this call, two CubeSats from the 2022 CubeSat competition developed by domestic universities (Chosun University, Busan National University, KAIST), and two verification satellites developed by KARI to validate domestic components.
Additionally, one CubeSat for Nuri's 4th launch, which is scheduled for this year, has been selected. "PERSAT," by QUATERNION for analyzing ocean debris currents in Jeju, is among the CubeSats selected for the Nuri 4th launch, which will also carry the primary payload of the Next-Generation Medium Satellite No. 3 and 12 CubeSats as secondary payloads.
Park Jae-sung, Director General of Space Transport Directorate at KASA, said, "To enhance the utilization of Nuri and accumulate experience by verifying the technologies of domestically developed satellites in the space environment, we will continue to provide opportunities for satellite deployment on Nuri. Additionally, we will ensure the smooth preparation for Nuri's 4th launch, and regularly monitor the preparation of both the launch vehicle and the selected satellites for the 5th launch next year."