Update: SpaceX launches South Korea's first dedicated military communications satellite

South Korea’s first dedicated military communications satellite, ANASIS-II, was launched on 20 July from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in the US state of Florida aboard a Falcon 9 two-stage rocket from aerospace company SpaceX.

The satellite, which was built by Airbus Defence and Space and fitted with an upgraded version of the Army/Navy/Air Force Satellite Information System (ANASIS) developed by South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development (ADD), was expected to be launched on 14 July but the launch was postponed a day earlier as SpaceX announced it would “take a closer look” at the second stage of the rocket and “swap hardware if needed”.

The new satellite, which will operate from a geostationary orbit at an altitude of about 36,000 km, is intended to replace South Korea’s combined civil and military communications satellite Mugunghwa 5, which is fitted with the ANASIS-I system.

South Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a statement that ANASIS-II, which has been designed to enable a “stable and continuous communication network”, had more than double the data transmission capacity of the previous communication satellite and could maintain communications “despite enemy jamming attacks”.