Japanese Company Launches North Korea's Military Reconnaissance Satellite

Mitsubishi launched the IGS-Optical 8/DOK X satellite @MHI_GroupJP

JAKARTA Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), a Japanese technology company, announced it had successfully launched an optical reconnaissance satellite into orbit on Thursday, January 12.

This satellite is named Information Gathering Satellite (IGS) Optical 8. Through the company's release, MHI said that their satellite was launched from the Tanegashima Space Center using the H-IIA rocket and the SRB-A3 booster.

About half an hour after the launch, the satellite was successfully separated from its launch vehicle. The MHI stated that the IGS-Optical 8 flight was running smoothly. Currently, the satellite is traveling towards the Sinkron Solar Orbit (SSO).

"(We) managed to separate the Optical Information Collecting satellite 8. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all parties involved for their cooperation in the launch of the H-IIA Rocket," MHI said shortly after the launch.

The IGS-Optical 8 is expected to enter SSO when it is 500 kilometers high. Upon arrival in a predetermined territory, the satellite will track North Korea's various military activities and monitor possible natural disasters.

The IGS satellite was first launched in March 2001. However, at the second launch of the same year, this satellite failed to reach SSO. MHI had stopped launching the IGS for three years, then started re-launching in 2026.

Since then, the IGS satellite has continued to be launched in stages every year or twice a year. To date, MHI has launched 20 satellites in 16 launches. Of the 18 satellites that were successfully directed to SSO, 10 of them have retired.