Nuri reaches orbit and deploys 14 satellites on fifth launch

South Korea’s homegrown Nuri rocket reached its target orbit and deployed 14 satellites on its fifth flight on Wednesday, the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said — the rocket’s first sequential deployment of multiple primary satellites (KED Global).

Nuri lifted off at 12:25 p.m. local time from the second launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, carrying 15 satellites toward a sun-synchronous orbit about 575 km above Earth (KED Global; Korea Herald). KED Global reports 14 satellites were deployed; it gave no explanation for the difference from the 15-satellite manifest.

The manifest comprised five NEONSAT (New-space Earth Observation Satellite Constellation for National Safety) microsatellites, numbered 2 through 6, as the primary payload, plus ten CubeSats developed by Korean universities, research institutions and startups (Tech Times). Each NEONSAT weighs under 100 kg and was jointly developed by KAIST’s Satellite Technology Research Center and Satrec Initiative, carrying an electro-optical camera with 1-metre black-and-white and 4-metre colour resolution (Tech Times).

The NEONSAT cameras capture imagery for national security and disaster response, including monitoring wildfires and floods; the constellation will eventually comprise ten satellites, with five more flying on Nuri’s sixth launch in 2027 (Korea Times).

For the fifth flight, Hanwha Aerospace held full Nuri operational command for the first time, with KASA moving from operational lead to a supervisory and advisory role (Tech Times).

The success follows Nuri’s October 2021 maiden flight, which failed to reach orbit when the third stage shut down 46 seconds early; the flights in June 2022, May 2023 and November 2025 all succeeded (Wikipedia). A sixth flight is planned for September 2027 with NEONSAT 7–11 aboard (Wikipedia).