VANDENBERG SPACE FORCE BASE, Calif. (KEYT) – A Falcon 9 launch of the CAS500-2 mission from Space Launch Complex 4 East is scheduled for the first half hour of Sunday, May 3, 2026.
The 37-minute launch window will being in the final minute of Saturday, May 2, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time and end in the first 36 minutes of Sunday, May 3, 2026 at 12:36 a.m. and a backup window has been designated at the same time starting the final minute of Sunday, May 3 and extending into the first half hour of Monday, May 4.
According to Vandenberg Space Force Base, the two-day spanning launch window is to accomodate the satellites insertion into a sun-synchronous orbit.
The Korean Aerospace Research Institute's second Compact Advanced Satellite 500, or CAS500-2, is a satellite destined for a sun-synchronous, low-Earth orbit and will capture images of our planet in panchromatic and multispectral modes using an onboard, advanced Earth imaging sensor system.
An artist's depiction of the Korea Multi-purpose Satellite courtesy of the Korean Aerospace Research Institute.The Next-Generation Medium-Sized Satellite program was initially launched in 2015 and is the result of the Korea Multi-purpose Satellite program first established in 1994, detailed the Korean Aerospace Research Institute.
Image courtesy of the Korean Aerospace Research Institute.This will be the second of two 500 kilogram satellites part of the first-phase of the South Korean program which intends to move to the deployment of three medium-sized satellites in the program's second stage shared the Korean Aerospace Research Institute.
The first CAS500 satellite was launched in 2020 using two Soyuz-2-1a Fregat rockets from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and sanctions pushed the launch of the CAS500-2 mission back from its originally scheduled launch time and resulted in the use of SpaceX's Falcon 9 booster.
There will be a total of 45 payloads aboard the CAS500-2 mission from both governmental and private organizations noted SpaceX.
Image courtesy of the Korean Aerospace Research Institute.A full history of the South Korean space agency can be found here.
A live webcast of the launch will begin about 15 minutes before liftoff. You can tune in to watch here or on SpaceX's X/Twitter account.
Following first-stage separation, the booster assigned to this mission will return to Earth to land at Landing Zone 4 at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
A depiction of that launch sequence is shown in the image below.
There is the potential for one or more sonic booms associated with the launch, most likely around eight to ten minutes after liftoff as the Falcon 9 booster returns to land at Vandenberg Space Force Base.
How far the sound travels will depend on weather and other conditions at launch time.
This will be the 33rd flight for the Falcon 9 assigned to the this mission. The same booster previously launched: NROL-87, NROL-85, SARah-1, SWOT, Transporter-8, Transporter-9, NROL-146, Bandwagon-2, NROL-153, NROL-192, Transporter-14, and 20 prior Starlink missions.
Falcon 9 launch of South Korea’s CAS500-2 scheduled for early Sunday morning News Channel 3-12.
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