After two fiery failures, North Korea successfully placed the
Malligyong-1 satellite in orbit in November. Pyongyang's state
media claimed it has photographed sensitive military and
political sites in South Korea, the United States and elsewhere,
but has not released any imagery. Independent radio trackers
have not detected signals from the satellite.
"But now we can definitely say the satellite is alive," Marco
Langbroek, a satellite expert at Delft University of Technology
in the Netherlands, wrote in a blog post.
From Feb. 19-24, the satellite conducted maneuvers to raise its
perigee, or the lowest point in its orbit, from 488 km to 497
km, Langbroek said, citing data from the U.S.–led Combined Space
Operations Center.
"The maneuver proves that Malligyong-1 is not dead, and that
North-Korea has control over the satellite - something that was
disputed," he said.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said it too had assessed that the
satellite was in orbit, but said it would not comment further on
individual analyses. On Monday, Defense Minister Shin Won-sik
said the satellite was not showing any signs of performing other
tasks or engaging in reconnaissance.
"While we indeed currently cannot be sure whether the satellite
does successfully take imagery, it at least performs orbital
maneuvers, so in that sense it is functional," Langbroek wrote
of Shin's comments.
The orbit-raising maneuver was a surprise as the presence of an
onboard propulsion system was unexpected and previous North
Korean satellites never maneuvered, he said.
"Having the capacity to raise the satellite's orbit is a big
deal," Langbroek said.
That meant that as long as there was fuel in the satellite,
North Korea could prolong the satellite's lifetime by raising
its altitude when it got too low because of orbital decay, he
concluded.
Nuclear-armed North Korea has vowed to launch three more spy
satellites in 2024.
(Reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Alex
Richardson)
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