“Now we can definitely say the satellite is alive.” Marco Langbroek, a satellite expert at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, wrote that line in a blog post on Tuesday. He was talking about North Korea’s Malligyong-1, a spacecraft many had written off.
The evidence is an orbit that changed. From 19 to 24 February, the satellite carried out maneuvers that lifted its perigee, the lowest point of its orbit, from 488 km to 497 km (303.2 miles to 308.8 miles), Langbroek said, citing data from the US-led Combined Space Operations Center. The movements were first spotted by a tracking station in Leiden, the Netherlands, whose blog carried his findings.
“The manoeuvre proves that Malligyong-1 is not dead, and that North-Korea has control over the satellite,” he wrote. Control had been in dispute.
A surprise on board
The burn itself was a shock to the people watching. Nobody had known the satellite carried a propulsion system, and earlier North Korean satellites never maneuvered. “Having the capacity to raise the satellite’s orbit is a big deal,” Langbroek said.
His reasoning was practical. Orbits slowly decay, and a satellite that sinks too low eventually re-enters the atmosphere. So long as fuel remains, North Korea can lift it back up and extend its life.
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, backed the finding. He told NK News that the satellite “definitely raised its perigee in several small burns,” and that the feat “is not complicated at all.” He also told The Guardian that the satellite looked to be correcting its position, returning to where it had been soon after launch. It was not making a hostile move toward another country’s satellite, he said, a job for which it was “much too small.”
Seoul’s earlier assessment
Days earlier, on Monday, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik had said the satellite “is not showing any signs of performing tasks or engaging in reconnaissance activities,” according to The Korea Times. The defense ministry said it had also assessed that the satellite was in orbit, but declined to comment on individual analyses.
Langbroek answered Shin directly. “While we indeed currently cannot be sure whether the satellite does successfully take imagery, it at least performs orbital manoeuvres, so in that sense it is functional,” he wrote.
What the satellite can actually do is still unknown. North Korea launched it in November after two failed attempts. State media said it photographed sensitive military and political sites in South Korea, the US and elsewhere, and a week after launch Pyongyang claimed “detailed” pictures of the White House, the Pentagon and US aircraft carriers. No imagery has been released. Independent radio trackers have not picked up signals from it.
The US condemned the launches, viewing them as cover for missile technology tests. US Space Command, which tracks active objects in orbit, did not immediately comment on the findings.
Maneuvering itself is common practice. Companies and countries move satellites to improve their position, to dodge other satellites or debris, or, depending on capability, to sit above a region of interest. The US, Russia and China have lately launched satellites that can maneuver and inspect other objects in orbit.
North Korea has vowed to launch three more spy satellites in 2024. South Korea warned that Pyongyang could launch a new one as soon as March, The Korea Times reported.
Sources
- First North Korea spy satellite is ‘alive’ and being controlled, experts say
- North Korea's twice-failed spy satellite is now up and running, aerospace experts say
Sources
- First North Korea spy satellite is ‘alive’ and being… | The Guardian
- North Korea's twice-failed spy satellite is now up and running…
