Bang on schedule, on 18 February, the South Korea Aerospace Research Institute, KARI, successfully launched its new satellite GEOKOMPSAT-2B (GK2B). Just as with the companion mission GK2A, GMV has provided for GK2B the flight dynamics system for the Launch and Early Operations Phase (LEOP), based on its inhouse Focussuite product. GMV has also supplied operational support engineers.

There is, however, a significant difference between the support for GK2A, launched back in 2018, and the GK2B support, which ran up to mid-March. At the moment of the launch South Korea had only a few COVID-19 cases but the whole population was on alert. The number of cases began to soar just when the mission kicked off, although the main focus of infection was a long way from the zone housing KARI’s operations center.

As well as social-distancing and hygiene measures, KARI set up thoroughgoing operations-center access-control and registering measures. On-site working hours were trimmed to the bone, and part of the posted GMV personnel’s in situ support was rendered from the hotel they were staying in. Even so, thanks to the protection measures and the painstaking approach of the KARI operations colleagues, plus the ongoing support and monitoring of team GMV from Tres Cantos, the work was successfully completed on time.