South Korea's newest geostationary satellite, the Chollian-2A.... has been successfully launched and made contact with a ground station in Australia.<br />This is significant because.... it's the country's first independently-developed geostationary satellite.<br />Kan Hyeong-woo starts us off. <br />The Ariane 5 blasted off from the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana along the South American coast on Tuesday at around 3:37 PM local time,... carrying a satellite for India and another for South Korea. <br /><br />The Chollian-2A satellite, designed to enhance South Korea's weather monitoring system, successfully made initial contact with a ground station in Australia some 30 minutes after launch. <br />In about two weeks, the satellite is expected to enter its intended geostationary orbit at 36,000 kilometers. <br /><br />Developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, the satellite can provide images with four times higher resolution and deliver data 18 times faster than the first Chollian launched in 2010. <br />Its observation frequency is also increased six-fold,... collecting weather data around the Korean Peninsula every two minutes. <br /><br />"The first Chollian satellite in 2010 was developed by borrowing a European Airbus model. But the 2A was entirely built from our own technology. So South Korea is now capable of making both cutting-edge software and hardware for geostationary satellites."<br /><br />The Chollian-2A will run test operations for six months after reaching its intended orbit,...after that it will provide weather information for the next ten years.<br />Kan Hyeong-woo, Arirang News <br />
