Falcon 9 • Korea 425

A Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket launched the 425 Project EO/IR satellite 1 reconnaissance satellite for South Korea and 24 other spacecraft. The South Korean satellite is the first of five missions planned by the country’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) for a program known as the ‘425 Project’. This first mission is an optical/infra-red imaging satellite. The four missions to follow will feature synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Also onboard is EIRSAT-1, Ireland’s first satellite, a 2U cubesat which was funded by the Education Office of the European Space Agency. Other payloads include: Space BD’s ISL48, SITAEL’s uHETSat, D-Orbit’s ION SCV Daring Diego, York Space Systems’ Bane, and PlanetIQ’s GNOMES-4. The Falcon 9 first-stage booster returned to Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg. Delayed from Nov. 29.