[Digital Today reporter Yoonseo Lee] South Korea’s Nuri (KSLV-II) rocket began its fifth spaceflight carrying a record 15 satellites.

Nuri lifted off at 12:25 p.m. on Oct. 7 from the second launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung. The Korea AeroSpace Administration and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute held a launch management committee meeting earlier in the day and confirmed the launch time after reviewing the rocket’s readiness, weather and the space environment.

The payload includes five microsatellite cluster satellites, NeonSat Nos. 2 to 6, and 10 CubeSats. The core mission is to inject the five NeonSat satellites, which share the same observation purpose, into orbit in sequence.

Under the launch plan, separation of the first NeonSat began about 13 minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff. After separating all five NeonSat satellites, the rocket plans to release the 10 CubeSats in sequence, two at a time.

Ground images captured by NeonSat are set to be used for national security and for responding to disasters such as wildfires and floods. The CubeSats carried alongside are to carry out a range of missions including verifying the performance of domestically made devices and parts in the space environment, observing the space environment and monitoring ocean currents.

The Korea AeroSpace Administration is set to announce detailed launch results at around 2 p.m. The final success of the launch will be determined after confirming whether NeonSat, the main payload satellite, has been properly injected into its target orbit.

The launch is a test of Nuri’s precision transport capability to place multiple satellites into orbit in a set order and at set intervals. If the mission succeeds, it is expected to provide a foothold for full-scale domestic operation of satellite clusters.