SEOUL -- The launch of South Korea's next-generation small satellite was postponed due to a pre-flight inspection on Falcon-9, a two-stage rocket created by American aerospace manufacturer SpaceX. It was to take off at a military base northwest of Los Angeles Monday to deploy 64 satellites into orbit.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said that the new date of the Falcon-9 rocket's launch would be disclosed later.
The undelivered payload is a 100-kilogram satellite developed by a research team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST). It was designed for low Earth orbit to observe the infrared spectroscopy of stars for two years and measure the strength of space radiation. The small satellite would monitor how its parts endure the harsh conditions of space.