Kwangmyongsong-3

Spacecraft n°:

N. Korean spacecraft n°: 3

Launch data:

Spacecraft data:

Description:

• Kwangmyongsong-3 is a 100 kg box-shaped satellite 1.4 x 0.6 x 0.7m in size with body-mounted solar panels.
• Unha-3 is a three stage vehicle; stage 1 is 2.40m in diameter, stage 2 is about 1.5m in diameter, and stage 3 is about 1.2m in diameter. Unha-3 seems almost identical to Unha-2, except that the third stage seems to be slightly stretched. The first two stages fly south on an azimuth that would lead to an 88 degree inclination orbit; the third stage is expected to make a yawed burn that if successful will result in a 500 km, 97.4 deg inclination sun-synchronous orbit. The 2009 Unha-2 launch was on an eastward rather than southward azimuth, from a different launch site, and suffered a failure of the third stage to ignite which resulted in payload impact in the Pacific.
• Sohae: Satellite Launching Station near Tongchang-ri in NW corner of North Korea.

Mission details:

• Launch of the Unha-3 rocket with the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite payload from the Sohae launch site at Tongch'ang-dong occurred on Apr 12, 2012.
• Based on the available information announced by the South Korean military, it seems that the rocket took off at 2238:55 UTC but failed near the end of first stage burn, probably at the point of separation of the first and second stages about 1min30s after launch at 2240 UTC. The remains of it then arced up 151 km into space and fell back into the Yellow Sea at about 124E 36N (according to South Korean statements) probably about 5 minutes after launch. This is consistent with a trajectory of roughly -6200 x 130 km x 88 deg, about what one might expect for the first stage. The impact area is close to the planned impact zone for the first stage which was at 124.5-124.8E, 35.2-35.9N.
• From KCNA: "The DPRK launched its first application satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station in Choisan County, North Phyongan Province at 07:38:55am on Friday. The earth observation satellite failed to enter its preset orbit. Scientists, technicians and experts are now looking into the cause of the failure". This contrasts with the two previous failures which the North Koreans still claim as successes.