June 6, 2025: South Korea’s Space Program budget has growing from $246 million in 2008 to $726 million in 2025. The first successful South Korean satellite launch was in 2013, when a Naro-1 satellite launch vehicle or SLV put a South Korean satellite into orbit. That led to the development of the locally produced Nuri SLV.

In 2022 South Korea began using the Nuri three-stage SLV. So far Nuri has been used three times. The first launch, in 2021, was a failure. The second, in 2022, and third in 2023 were successful. Three more launches are planned, in late 2025, 2026 and 2027. South Korea uses the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California for its launches.

In 2008, after eight years of operation, South Korea lost communication on the last day of 2007 with its first space satellite; Arirang-1. Or, as it was commonly described, Arirang-1 had disappeared. This satellite was only expected to last three years, but until the communications malfunction, it continued to perform. Its cameras only have a 6.5-meter resolution. The then current U.S. spy sats are a thousand times more detailed. In 2006, a second satellite, Arirang-2, was launched, and it had a resolution of one meter. Arirang-1 circled the globe about 14 times a day at an altitude of 685 kilometers. Most likely, Arirang-1 just got old and died, probably from a power system failure. It was last active on 30 December 2007 and was deactivated on January 31, 2008.

South Korea teamed with Israeli firms to develop the cameras for the Arirang series of satellites. Before Nuri, South Korea used Russian SLVs to put its satellites into orbit. South Korea uses is surveillance satellite to keep an eye on North Korea. By the end of 2025 South Korea will have five surveillance satellites in orbit. One of these will pass over North Korea every two hours.