Overview
- Falcon 9, which lifted off late Saturday from Vandenberg, returned its first stage to Landing Zone 4 about eight minutes later in a rare return-to-launch-site landing from California.
- CAS500-2 separated from the rocket about an hour after liftoff and established first contact 15 minutes later with a Svalbard ground station, with Korean officials reporting the satellite is healthy.
- Built by Korea Aerospace Industries, the 534-kilogram Earth imager can capture 0.5-meter black-and-white and 2-meter color pictures to support land management and disaster response.
- The mission flew as a rideshare that delivered 45 satellites for multiple customers, with most secondary payloads manifested by launch broker Exolaunch.
- The spacecraft now enters about four months of on-orbit testing and calibration before beginning routine imaging later this year.