SpaceX launches South Korea's second spy satellite amid race with North

South Korea's defence ministry said on April 8 that the country's second homegrown spy satellite had entered orbit after its launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The launch, which comes after Seoul's first spy satellite was put into orbit from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base in December, was live-streamed on social media platforms X and YouTube, per Reuters.

The Falcon 9 rocket was launched at 2317 GMT on Sunday, and the satellite successfully separated from the launch vehicle 45 minutes later and entered its targeted orbit, the ministry said in a statement.

It made successful communications with a ground station about two hours and 40 minutes after the launch, the ministry added.

The back-to-back launches of reconnaissance satellites come amid a race, opening a new tab against North Korea for military capabilities in space.

After two earlier attempts ended in rocket crashes, Pyongyang said in November last year that it used its own Chollima-1 launch vehicle to place the Malligyong-1 reconnaissance satellite in orbit.