KOMPSAT SATELLITE LAUNCH AND DEPLOYMENT OPERATIONS

In this paper, KOMPSAT satellite launch and deployment operations are discussed. The U.S. Taurus launch vehicle delivers KOMPSAT satellite into the mission orbit directly. Launch and deployment operations is monitored and controlled by several international ground stations including Korean Ground Station (KGS). After separation from launch vehicle, KOMPSAT spacecraft deploys solar array by on-board autonomous stored commands without ground inter-vention and stabilizes the satellite such that solar arrays point to the sun. Autonomous ground communication is designed for KOMPSAT for the early orbit ground contact. KOMPSAT space-craft has capability of handing contingency situation by on-board fault management design to retry deployment sequence.