The Korea Aerospace Administration and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute announced that they will be inviting applications for payload satellites to be launched with the Nuri rocket’s 4th and 5th launches over a four-week period starting from the 9th. The invitation is open to industry, research institutes, and government agencies.
The Space Agency and KARI plan to launch five microsatellite constellation satellites as the primary payload on the 5th Nuri launch in the first half of 2026. Additionally, to enhance satellite technology and utilization capabilities of domestic industries, research institutes, and government departments (including local governments), they plan to invite submissions for a total of seven CubeSats to be secondary payloads.
Besides the main payload and the selected secondary payloads for the 5th launch, two CubeSats from domestic universities (Chosun University, Pusan National University, and KAIST), selected through the “2022 CubeSat Competition,” and the Korean Component Verification Satellite 2 developed by KARI to verify domestic components will also be launched as secondary payloads.
For the 4th Nuri launch, scheduled for the second half of next year, the primary payload will be the Next-Generation Medium Satellite 3, along with a total of 12 secondary payloads. Due to delays in the development of overseas CubeSats initially agreed to be included, an additional call for one more secondary payload (3U) for the 4th launch is being conducted.
Hyun Sung-yoon, the program director for the space transportation mission design at the Space Agency, stated, “Providing the opportunity for satellites intended for public use to be launched on the Nuri rocket will revitalize the space industry ecosystem, contribute to securing competitiveness by verifying performance in the space environment, and strengthen space technology competitiveness.”