Korea Aerospace Research Institute's (KARI)communications, oceanography and meteorology satellite (COMS) has left for the French Guiana Space Centre.
COMS, the first European three-axis stabilised geostationary observation satellite, carries three payloads: meteorology applications, ocean observation and telecommunications.
The satellite built by Astrium in concert with KARI will continually observe world-scale meteorological phenomena and specific local weather events such as hurricanes, monsoons and sandstorms through its meteorology imager.
COMS based on the Eurostar E3000 spacecraft platform will also carry a multiband imager with a 400m resolution to monitor changes in the marine ecosystem and ocean observation.
The communication payload will include an experimental Ka-band telecommunications module to validate wide-band multimedia telecommunications services.
The satellite, with a take-off weight of 2.5t, has a design life of at least eight years and adapts some of the E3000 avionics for optical observation from a geostationary orbit.
The KARI satellite will launch atop an Ariane 5 rocket along with another payload, Arabsat-5A, in April 2010.
