Article Posted on : - Jun 21, 2010

The Ariane 5 rocket will launch the Chollian

SEOUL (BNS): South Korea plans to launch its first ocean weather-communications satellite Thursday.

The Chollian satellite has been attached to the Ariane 5 space rocket at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana and is ready for blastoff Thursday, a report by Yonhap said.

If the launch is successful, South Korea will be the first in the world to operate an oceanographic observation satellite in geostationary orbit that can simultaneously provide weather-related information and communications services around the clock, it said.

The satellite, equipped with a multi-spectrum camera and sensor array that can help monitor typhoons, ocean temperatures, and the movement of dust and cloud formations, will be placed 36,000 kilometers from Earth.

As the satellite will stay fixed in orbit it can give full coverage around the Korean Peninsula and give accurate timely weather information, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said.

"The new satellite can send data every 15 minutes and down to every 8 minutes in emergency situations such as when a typhoon is approaching the country," the news agency quoted Yoo Guk-hee, head of the ministry's space development division as saying.

Soth Korea spend over 350 billion won (US$292.3 million) to build the high-tech satellite that is designed to be in operation for seven years.

The Ariane 5 rocket will launch the Chollian and the Arabsat 5A satellite into orbit.