{"id":21044,"date":"2026-02-03T01:28:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/rocket-lab-launches-south-korean-disaster-monitoring-satellite-after-delay\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T01:28:59","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T17:28:59","slug":"rocket-lab-launches-south-korean-disaster-monitoring-satellite-after-delay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/rocket-lab-launches-south-korean-disaster-monitoring-satellite-after-delay\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab Launches South Korean Disaster-Monitoring Satellite After Delay"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rocket Lab successfully launched a South Korean Earth-observation satellite from New Zealand on Thursday, placing a disaster-monitoring spacecraft into low Earth orbit about six weeks later than originally planned.<\/p>\n<p>A 59-foot Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab\u2019s launch site on the M\u0101hia Peninsula at 8:21 p.m. EST (0121 GMT on Friday), carrying the \u201cBridging the Swarm\u201d mission. The launch marked Rocket Lab\u2019s second mission of 2026 and its 81st launch overall.<\/p>\n<p>The mission deployed NEONSAT-1A, an optical Earth-observation satellite developed by the Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC) at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The spacecraft was released from Electron\u2019s kick stage approximately 54 minutes after liftoff into an orbit about 540 km above Earth.<\/p>\n<p><iframe id=\"twitter-widget-0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowtransparency=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" class=\"\" style=\"position: static; visibility: visible; width: 0px; height: 0px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;\" title=\"X Post\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?dnt=true&amp;embedId=twitter-widget-0&amp;features=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%3D%3D&amp;frame=false&amp;hideCard=false&amp;hideThread=false&amp;id=2017064026820460997&amp;lang=en&amp;origin=https%3A%2F%2Fspacemagz.com%2Frocket-lab-launches-south-korean-disaster-monitoring-satellite-after-delay%2F&amp;sessionId=65a91c4dc3367f91f6e55fa8596b1fc330ea12fd&amp;theme=light&amp;widgetsVersion=6a3ad42b224df%3A1778106238597&amp;width=550px\" data-tweet-id=\"2017064026820460997\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" data-twitter-extracted-i1782966707919777827=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">MISSION SUCCESS! Payload deployment is confirmed for the \u2018Bridging The Swarm\u2019 mission for @KAISTPR.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" role=\"img\" class=\"emoji\" alt=\"\u2705\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/17.0.2\/svg\/2705.svg\"> 2nd launch in 8 days<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" role=\"img\" class=\"emoji\" alt=\"\u2705\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/17.0.2\/svg\/2705.svg\"> 81st launch in total<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" draggable=\"false\" role=\"img\" class=\"emoji\" alt=\"\u2705\" src=\"https:\/\/s.w.org\/images\/core\/emoji\/17.0.2\/svg\/2705.svg\"> 100% mission success in 2026 pic.twitter.com\/flTtuPvKAI<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Rocket Lab (@RocketLab) January 30, 2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Rocket Lab described NEONSAT-1A as \u201can advanced Earth-observation satellite equipped with a high-resolution optical camera,\u201d adding that it is designed to support near-real-time monitoring of natural disasters affecting the Korean peninsula.<\/p>\n<p>The launch followed a series of delays. An initial attempt on Dec. 15 was aborted in the final seconds of the countdown, after the company had already postponed the mission from an earlier Dec. 10 target to complete additional system checks.<\/p>\n<p>NEONSAT-1A is the second satellite launched under the NEONSAT program. The first spacecraft, NEONSAT-1, was placed into orbit aboard an Electron rocket in April 2024. The program is funded by South Korea\u2019s Ministry of Science and ICT and involves collaboration among multiple Korean academic, industry and research institutions, with SaTReC leading system design and engineering.<\/p>\n<p>Rocket Lab said all mission objectives were met during Thursday\u2019s launch. The company conducted 21 launches in 2025, the highest annual total in its history, as it continues to expand its small-satellite launch business.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rocket Lab successfully launched a South Korean Earth-observation satellite from New Zealand on Thursday, placing a disaster-monitoring spacecraft into low Earth orbit about six weeks later than originally planned. A 59-foot Electron rocket lifted off from Rocket Lab\u2019s launch site on the M\u0101hia Peninsula at 8:21 p.m. EST (0121 GMT on Friday), carrying the \u201cBridging [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7492,7676,7677,7678,1596,544,5959,7679],"class_list":["post-21044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-asia-pacific","tag-disaster-monitoring","tag-korea-advanced-institute-of-science-and-technology","tag-neonsat","tag-new-zealand","tag-rocket-lab","tag-satellite-launch","tag-satrec"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21044"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}