SEOUL, Feb. 20 (Yonhap) — South Korea will export high-resolution commercial satellite imagery from its indigenous satellites, the ICT ministry said Tuesday.
Satrec Initiative Co., a local solution provider for earth observation, has inked export deals with the Philippines and India, said the Ministry of Science and ICT.
It is the first time that the country has reached a deal to directly transmit image data taken by South Korean satellites.
The Korea Multipurpose Satellite -3 (KOMPSAT-3), also known as the Arirang-3, and the KOMPSAT-5, referred to as the Arirang-5, will send pictures and radar images to the Philippines for one year.
Under a separate agreement with India, images capturing India taken by Arirang-3A and Arirang-3 will be provided for a period of two years for US$4 million, officials said.
Built by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), which is in charge of the nation’s space program, Arirang 3 and Arirang-3A were launched in May 2012 and March 2015, respectively. The Arirang 5 — equipped with synthetic aperture radar that provides images of 1-meter resolution — was launched in August 2013.
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