Pyongyang, November 22 (KCNA) -- The National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea successfully launched the new-type carrier rocket "Chollima-1" loaded with the reconnaissance satellite "Malligyong-1" at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in Cholsan County, North Phyongan Province, at 22:42:28 on November 21, Juche 112 (2023).
The carrier rocket "Chollima-1" flew normally along the preset flight track and accurately put the reconnaissance satellite "Malligyong-1" on its orbit at 22:54:13, 705s after the launch.
The launch of reconnaissance satellite is a legitimate right of the DPRK for strengthening its self-defensive capabilities and it will make a significant contribution to definitely ramping up the war preparedness of the armed forces of the Republic in conformity with the security environment created in and around the country owing to the enemies' dangerous military moves.
Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the DPRK, oversaw the launch on the spot.
He was accompanied by Kim Jong Sik, vice department director of the WPK Central Committee, and Jang Chang Ha, general director of the DPRK General Missile Bureau.
The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un oversaw the launch and warmly congratulated all the cadres, scientists and technicians of the NATA and relevant institutions on having made a great contribution to enhancing the Republic's war deterrent and most correctly and excellently implementing the resolution of the Eighth Congress of the WPK.
The NATA is to present to the 9th Plenary Meeting of the 8th WPK Central Committee a plan for continuing to secure the capability to reconnoiter the south Korean region and the region of operational interest of the DPRK armed forces by additionally launching several reconnaissance satellites in a short span of time. -0-
http://kcna.kp/en/article/q/1eb1892a9d329f7cd348008b6bd315bd.kcmsf
mirror https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1700611622-680414227/dprk-natas-report-on-successful-launch-of-reconnaissance-satellite/
KCNA kp is a news site controlled by the DPRK government. You can see more photos if you click on the photo button in the top right corner.
Making orbit is hard. Really hard. Space is easy, just go 100km straight up (the Karman line). But staying in space means accelerating sideways to 27000-ish KPH at minimum. The engineering challenges are immense.
Making orbit with a sizeable payload also means the theoretical capability to drop a nuke anywhere on the planet. It's one reason why the US government is so happy to facilitate deals between American launch companies and other countries to launch their satellites for them, instead of forcing them to develop homegrown dual-purpose rocketry technology.
Musk in shambles.
no lithium- twitter unprofitable and now named something ridiculous
- grimes divorced him
- DPRK better at going to space than him.
- his oldest child hates him and is trans
It's amazing what a country can accomplish without Amerikkkan intervention
Just watched musk incinerate another
rocketpile of investor cash last week
keeps trucking alongIn fairness to the engineers and technicians at SpaceX who actually do the real work there (unlike the asshole gloryhound at the top), that prototype Starship flight was actually a big success from a testing perspective. Unlike the first Starship test flight which broke up early into flight, the first stage ("booster") ascent was a complete success. The launch pad survived with barely any damage (possibly only cosmetic damage), and all 33 engines on the booster stayed operational right up to stage separation unlike the first test where several failed. So far it looks like the booster did its post-stage-separation turn faster than expected, leading to sloshing of propellant which in turn caused engines to fail. That turn is needed for the booster to return to the launch site for re-launch.
The second stage ("starship") also had all its engines fire properly, almost to the very end of its planned burn. There seems to have been an oxygen leak that happened due to the highly experimental stage separation method (called hot-staging). That leak meant that the starship wouldn't have made it to its planned splashdown point off Hawaii.
Both booster and starship are equipped with automatic self-destructs called AFTS, or "autonomous flight termination system". In these test flights they're programmed to automatically blow up their vehicles if they're going off-course, to prevent them from landing in areas that weren't empty ocean. The data they gathered will be invaluable for the third test flight. They've already got 3 more ship/booster sets ready to fly once they get test launch licenses from the FAA.
It should be noted that the problems on this flight stemmed from unexpected issues in reusability techniques and hardware. SpaceX now has a rocket that, if launched in a disposable mode like every non-SpaceX orbital rocket ever built, has twice the cargo capability of the legendary Saturn V that put US astronauts on the Moon. And because it's using mass-production techniques, it probably costs them no more than a few tens of millions USD per launch.
That is a charitable read, I try to be fair to the engineers involved as it is real work, but honestly the whole endeavor is rotten from the top.
I saw two distinct failure modes from the last launch, in two different subsystems, where previously the rocket failed pretty clearly from eating its own concrete backwash.
They claim the booster was intentionally self-destructed, but from looking at the timeline of events there was no reason to intentionally self destruct It was over open ocean and appeared to come apart under its own forces, rather than intentionally.
The starship engines were displayed as fully ignited, but they also didn't provide a lot of video to corroborate that, so it's taking their word. I also saw some footage from a second source which seemed to indicate that the starship was actually tumbling through the air at that point, leaving a wake of unignited fuel, again while indicating fully functional engines.
To me that's actually more concerning than the first launch, where it could have just been physical damage to the booster which lead to the failure to separate and the total loss. In this one two different sections failed in different ways, and diffently from the first.
'Hot staging' is not 'highly experimental'. It is the standard for Soyuz rockets and has been in common use since the 60's. Difficult to call a practice like that experimental if there are over 1000 case studies to run from.
That said, Starship was designed with cold-staging in mind, and I'm not a rocket scientist or aerospace engineer, but to my general knowledge and experience it is not a great sign when you are making a huge thermo-dynamics staging change like that after most of your parts are already designed. The amount of time and energy that will have to be made in order to make sure every part that is possibly going to be affected is changed properly is massive.
I'd say it's almost more challenging than designing from the ground up. Not impossible, but the sheer changes in engineering involved has to be worse than any video game crunch. If they actually pull this off, I'll shut my mouth, but it would be a testament to an extremely detail-oriented engineering team, something that is not really in Musk or SpaceX's 'move fast and break things' mantra.
Reconnaissance satellite is what the DPRK is calling the satellite but western media is calling it "spy" satellite. I put quotes to emphasize the terminology used by the DPRK. I am not doubting or mocking the DPRK.
When we fly planes with crazy optics rrrriiiiiight outside their airspace (or in it sometimes opppsiee) it's wholesome 💯. Can't be mad bro. If they launch one(1) satellite... Clearly they're evil.
Yeah, they always have to frame what DPRK does as "bad", as if they never do anything bad. shivers thinking about history of USA and allies
Good sign that they successfully resolved the USB virus issues that were spreading through their systems a while back thanks to the cia.
DPRK posted a second article to show Kim Jong Un visiting the NATA Control Center. This article has a photo inside the control room.
https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/e7364235-5e8d-4a5b-bffc-3f1432e79a94.jpeg
Pyongyang, November 22 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, visited the Pyongyang General Control Center of the National Aerospace Technology Administration (NATA) at 10:00 a.m. on Nov. 22 to learn about the operation of the reconnaissance satellite "Malligyong-1" on orbit, its fine-tuning process and the state of aerospace photographing of a specific area under the ground command.
He was accompanied by Kim Jong Sik, vice department director of the C.C., WPK.
The NATA of the DPRK reported to Kim Jong Un that the reconnaissance satellite "Malligyong-1" would formally start its reconnaissance mission from December 1 after finishing 7 to 10 days' fine-tuning process.
Noting that the DPRK has finally developed and possessed aerospace reconnaissance capability by its own efforts and technologies, Kim Jong Un said that it is a great event in developing the armed forces of the Republic and coping with a new military situation in the region. And he highly praised once again the scientists and technicians in the field of aerospace science research for making tangible contributions to the Party's cause of building a powerful and modern army.
Then he watched the aerospace photos of Anderson Air Force Base, Apra Harbor and other major military bases of the U.S. forces taken in the sky above Guam in the Pacific, which were received at 9:21 a.m. on Nov. 22.
Noting that the armed forces of the DPRK have taken in their hands both "eyes" overlooking a very long distance and a strong "fist" beating a very long distance, he stressed once again that it is necessary to operate many more reconnaissance satellites in the aspect of increasing the effectiveness of the powerful military strike means of the DPRK as well as for self-defence.
Underlining the need to take note of the fact that the U.S. imperialists brought the nuclear carrier Carl Vinson and the nuclear-powered submarine Santa Fe to the south Korean region yesterday and today to turn the region into an advanced base of their aggressor forces and nuclear arsenal, he said that to closely monitor and grasp the nature of such maneuvers of the U.S. imperialists and their vassal armies endangering the regional military situation is a serious issue directly related to the security of the DPRK. He then stressed the need to launch more various reconnaissance satellites, put them on different orbits and operate them in a combined and practical manner, as already clarified, in order to provide the DPRK armed forces with abundant valuable real-time information about the enemy and further promote their responsive posture.
Approving the suggestion made by the NATA to submit to the 9th Plenary Meeting of the 8th WPK Central Committee the immediate plan for securing the aerospace reconnaissance capability for monitoring south Korea and the Pacific and their vicinity, he said that the above-said plenary meeting would discuss and decide the plan for the launch of reconnaissance satellite for 2024.
http://kcna.kp/en/article/q/61e6edeb8bd846ffcfe131e282256d21.kcmsf
mirror https://kcnawatch.org/newstream/1700640563-425435469/respected-comrade-kim-jong-un-visits-pyongyang-general-control-center-of-nataI really wanna see what it says on the kerbal space program HUD setup on the left of the blurred out main screen there.
North Korea appears to be preparing for its third attempt this year at launching a reconnaissance satellite, a move that may prove as controversial as the nuclear-armed country's weapons tests.
Earlier attempts on May 31 - North Korea's first such launch since 2016 - and Aug. 24 ended in fiery failures when its new Chollima-1 rockets crashed into the sea.
Since 1998 North Korea has launched six satellites, two of which appeared to have successfully reached orbit, and the last of which was in 2016.
In September Kim toured Russia's most modern space launch centre, where President Vladimir Putin promised to help Pyongyang build satellites.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/why-north-koreas-satellite-launches-draw-condemnation-2023-11-21/
North Korea has said it successfully launched a military spy satellite on its third attempt in six months.
The launch came just hours after Pyongyang had notified Japan of its intention to launch a satellite between November 22 and December 1.
State media certainly wanted to show that it was, publishing photos of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un smiling broadly following the launch, surrounded by cheering scientists and engineers in white uniforms.
Japan said it was still analysing the launch and “at this point is not confirming whether the satellite had entered into an orbit around the Earth”, chief government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said.
Analysts said it could take some time to work out whether the satellite is in orbit and operating.
Many experts are doubtful that Moscow could have provided game-changing assistance in just two months, however.
North Korea has said the satellite is necessary for it to deal with alleged threats from South Korea and the United States, and will improve its ability to monitor its neighbour.
South Korea responded by suspending parts of the Comprehensive Military Agreement that was signed at a 2018 summit between Kim and former South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday afternoon.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/22/north-koreas-spy-satellite-launch-all-you-need-to-know
As we all know, """Best""" (NOT!( Take that one, rocket-man Kim!)) Korea being literally Jim J. Johnwellson's "1985", which I need to read someday, means that this """"""reconnaissance"""""" """Satellite""" is 1000% a space-nuke launcher that is going to blow up my Grandpa's chicken farm (He has the egg monopoly in my 78 person county in north-eastern Idaho, specifically). This is why we need to STRIKE FIRST! !
First attempt failed in May.
Second attempt failed in August.
Visited Russia in September and freely roamed their military and space centers.
Succeeds in November.
Hmm….
I wouldn't minimize the successes of their home grown talent. They've launched satellites before.
Good on them for doing it again
If they weren’t confident in their own space program, they wouldn’t have launched three iterations with only an average interval of three months each. This means that they knew the problems were relatively minor.
Science is about cooperation, and if you think the recent Kim visit to Russia didn’t bring together scientists from both sides, then I really don’t know what to tell you.
What are you trying to say? Reaching out to consultants is a normal thing in advanced fields, especially during post incident analysis. US, EU, Russian, and Chinese organizations all do it, literally everyone does it. Might as well claim having read internationally published engineering and scientific journals means you didn't actually achieve something.
Hell, the US and EU literally poach the experts of other nations (brain drain) to make their advanced technology development and aerospace work. Why waste valuable time and resources on something someone you are on good terms with has probably already had to troubleshoot in the past, that effort is better spent elsewhere.
What are you trying to say?
Kim stole Russian space technology while visiting Russia.
Slipped it into his coat all sneaky-like, possibly with cartoon music playing
I'm sorry but you think it only took 6-8 weeks from discussions to actual changes in a rocket? Sincerely doubt it.
The average time between iterations of the past three launches is three months, i.e. ~12 weeks. This means that the North Koreans knew that the problems or defects were likely minor, and can be fixed relatively easily. If you think Russian and North Korean scientists don’t communicate and cooperate, then I don’t know what to tell you.
Did they cooperate and communicate with Russia or did they steal the knowledge/tech from them? You've said two things with two different implications and then put an exasperated "I don't know what to tell you" shtick when people inevitably don't know which direction you're coming from.
Nice! It's been a while since they've had a successful satellite launch, right?
The launch of reconnaissance satellite is a legitimate right of the DPRK for strengthening its self-defensive capabilities and it will make a significant contribution to definitely ramping up the war preparedness of the armed forces of the Republic in conformity with the security environment created in and around the country owing to the enemies’ dangerous military moves.
I am so glad they were finally able to get this satellite launched and in orbit
