Tag: space program

North Korea says it plans to launch many more satellites https://t.co/0FUJ85sdZZ #FoxNews

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) October 18, 2017

North Korea’s newly built satellite control center in Pyongyang. [CNN]

Will North Korea bring the first kimchi to the Moon?:

North Korean space officials are hard at work on a five-year plan to put more advanced satellites into orbit by 2020, and don’t intend to stop there: They’re also aiming for the moon, and beyond.

In an interview with The Associated Press, a senior official at North Korea’s version of NASA said international sanctions won’t stop the country from launching more satellites by 2020, and that he hopes to see the North Korean flag on the moon within the next 10 years.

“Even though the U.S. and its allies try to block our space development, our aerospace scientists will conquer space and definitely plant the flag of the DPRK on the moon,” said Hyon Kwang Il, director of the scientific research department of North Korea’s National Aerospace Development Administration.  [ABC News]

You can read more at the link, but a country with money for a space program that wants to go to the Moon shouldn’t need international aid money to care for and feed their people.

The Kim regime has made it official that next month they will begin another provocation cycle by conducting a space launch which by UN resolutions is banned:

North Korea said Monday it is ready to launch satellites aboard long-range rockets to mark a key national anniversary next month, a move expected to rekindle animosities with its rivals South Korea and the United States.

A National Aerospace Development Administration director said the world will “clearly see a series of satellites soaring into the sky at times and locations determined” by the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party.

In comments carried by Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency, he said that the North’s outer space development sector has been making “shining achievements” ahead of the 70th anniversary of the ruling party’s founding that falls on Oct. 10. He said North Korea is pushing forward on a final development phase for a new earth observation satellite for weather forecasts.

The launches, if made, are certain to trigger an international standoff, with Seoul, Washington and other neighboring countries viewing seeing past launches as disguised tests of the North’s long-range missile technology.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the next North Korean provocation cycle will occur in October if these analysts are correct:

Construction to upgrade North Korea’s main rocket launch site now appears complete amid expectations in rival South Korea that a launch could take place in October, a U.S. research institute said Tuesday.

South Korean officials are predicting the North will mark the upcoming 70th anniversary of the ruling communist party with a “strategic provocation” – possibly a blastoff from the west coast site of Sohae from where Pyongyang launched its first rocket into space in December 2012, drawing international condemnation.

The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies says commercial satellite imagery taken July 21 shows Pyongyang has made quick work since spring of constructing a support building on the launch pad where rockets would be prepared. It has also apparently completed a moveable structure on rails, several stories high, that would be used to shift rockets or rocket stages to the launch tower.   (……………)

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency last week cited unnamed government sources as saying that North Korea has almost completed modifications at Sohae, including an extended launch tower, and that it would be used to fire a long-range missile bigger than the rocket launched three years ago. This would mark the Oct. 10 anniversary of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

“I’m sure we’ll have a grand celebration,” North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations, Jang Il Hun, told reporters Tuesday in response to a question about a possible missile test for the anniversary. He added, “We are free to do whatever we want.”  [Associated Press]

This would actually be a fitting tribute for the Kim regime’s 70th anniversary commemoration because Kim Jong-un has been very diligent in associating himself with the nation’s space program.  Kim Jong-un does not have the military or governmental credentials of his grandfather or father, but I believe he is trying to make his own mark as the person advancing North Korea’s technological prowess, be it smartphones, expanding intranet access, submarine technology, nuclear technology, and most importantly the nation’s space program.

The North Koreans have been eager to describe their Taepodong-2 rocket as a space launch vehicle in their attempt to justify its launch.  However, the US says the rocket is a disguised attempt to get around the UN resolutions that forbid a missile program:

There hasn’t been a launch for more than two years, but a North Korean official told the Associated Press earlier this month that it’s planning to place a further satellite into orbit.

That announcement was met with a frosty reception in Washington.

“Any rocket capable of placing an object in orbit is directly relevant to the development of long-range ballistic missiles, as many ballistic missile and space launch vehicle technologies are virtually identical and interchangeable,” said State Dept. spokeswoman Marie Harf during a briefing on June 4.

“So we’ll be watching this. It could very likely contravene U.N. Security Council resolutions,” she said.

That prompted reporters to ask about a distinction between the satellite and the launch itself. Here’s video of the exchange:

At the time, the question wasn’t answered, but on Monday a State Department spokesperson told North Korea Tech that a North Korean satellite itself isn’t its concern.

Other countries are not prohibited from launching North Korean satellites, as long as the launches are carried out in accordance with international law, including the obligations in U.N. Security Council resolutions, the spokesperson said.  [North Korea Tech]

You can read the rest at the link.

ICYMI: NK states they are developing new satellite, defends space program http://t.co/ZZ4GXIvxen

— KEI (@KoreaEconInst) June 5, 2015

Japan launches the #Hayabusa2 asteroid explorer to retrieve materials from remote asteroid. pic.twitter.com/qGewdgNyzP

— CCTVNEWS (@cctvnews) December 3, 2014

China has been vigorously expanding their space program which includes such successes as recently launching astronauts into orbit.  Korea has also recently begun expanding their space program including the announcement of the construction of a state of the art launch pad on the Korean island of Goheung.  Now Japan is officially announced a significant expansion of their space program as well:

Japan is building upon its past successes in space to forge a range of initiatives, from disaster warning systems, probes to Mercury, Venus and Jupiter, as well as conduct an aggressive lunar exploration campaign.

Read the whole article, but the Japanese space agenda is definitely ambitious.  All in all I’m glad to see this Northeast Asian space race because hopefully this increased competition will further push our own US space program and industries which have become increasingly stagnant in recent years.  If it takes the Chinese landing on the moon to get the US space program moving again than I’m all for it.