Now confirmed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is that the launch of the KOMPSAT-6 (AKA: Arirang 6) satellite will be handled by a Russian Angara 1.2 carrier rocket sometime in 2020.
Artistic rendition of Korea's KOMPSAT-6 satellite.
The launch will be conducted from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome that's located in northwestern Russia and the main focus of the satellite's mission will be disaster detection, although the satellite is also defined as a multipurpose spacecraft, this according to a report from Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Russia's Angara launch vehicle. Photo is courtesy of Roscosmos.
Seoul's aerospace research institute on Tuesday confirmed that the Russian Angara-1.2 carrier rocket will put the South Korean KOMPSAT-6 satellite, also known as the Arirang 6, into orbit in 2020. The Angara family of space-launch vehicles is designed to provide lifting capabilities of between two and 40.5 metric tons into LEO and has been in development since 1995. Angara was the first orbit-capable rocket developed by Russia to replace the older Proton-M rockets.