Seoul’s satellite, carried by one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets, lifted off from the Vandenberg US Space Force Base in California at 10.19am local time on Friday, The Guardian reported.
The rocket was emblazoned with the word “KOREA” across it.
The Yonhap news agency reported that the satellite successfully reached orbit soon after.
Seoul plans to launch four additional spy satellites by the end of 2025 to bolster its reconnaissance capacity over the North.
“Considering resolution and its capacity for Earth observation … our satellite technology ranks in the top five globally,” the defense ministry official said, as quoted by Yonhap.
The launch comes less than two weeks after Pyongyang successfully put its own spy satellite into orbit.
AMK/PR
