Accelerating Space Technology Development

Officials from KAI and Sacheon City of South Gyeongsang Province pose for a photo at the ground-breaking ceremony for a space center.

Korea Aerospace Industries Ltd. (KAI) will build a space center to accelerate the development of space technology. The company plans to boost its annual space business sales from the current 200 billion won (US$177.46 million) to 1 trillion won (US$887.31 million) by 2030.

KAI and Sacheon City of South Gyeongsang Province held a ground-breaking ceremony for space center site construction in Yongdang-ri, Sacheon, on March 4. KAI will form a site with a total area of 29,113 square meters by August this year and complete a private space center with a total floor area of 17,580 square meters by June next year.

The space center will be responsible for developing and mass producing mid-class satellites. To this end, the company will set up a building for 550 researchers and engineers, a satellite assembly plant which can assemble six satellites at the same time and an advanced satellite test site. KAI is planning to optimize space technology development infrastructure by integrating the process of design, production, assembly and testing. The research center in Daejeon, which is currently in charge of KAI’s space business, will be relocated to the new space center in Sacheon when the center is completed.

KAI has been expanding its space business together with the airline business. The company took part in developing 1-ton satellites, including Arirang-1 to Arirang-7 multi-purpose satellites, and 3-ton geostationary multi-mission satellites. It branched out into the defense sector by winning an order for military spy satellites last year.

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