HARDWARE / PRODUCTUpdated 24 Jul 2026

CAS500 (Compact Advanced Satellite 500)

KAI (Korea Aerospace Industries)
CAS500 (Compact Advanced Satellite 500)

CAS500 is a series of 500 kg class Earth observation satellites developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). The series includes satellites for Earth observation and scientific research.

Key figurescomparable across the catalogue

Mass
500 kg

Normalised to common units so this product can be compared with others in its category. The supplier's own wording is below.

As published by the supplier

Country of origin
South Korea
Operator
KARI
Applications
Earth observation
Bus
CAS500
Launch mass
500 kg (1,100 lb)
Regime
SSO
Status
In Production
Built
5
Launched
4
Maiden launch
22 March 2021

About

The CAS500 (Compact Advanced Satellite 500) is a series of 500-kilogram class Earth observation satellites developed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). The series is designed for various applications, primarily Earth observation, but also includes scientific research missions. The first satellite, CAS500-1, a prototype Earth observation satellite, was launched on March 22, 2021, into a 500-kilometre Sun-synchronous orbit. CAS500-2 was initially planned for a Russian rocket launch but was rescheduled to launch with CAS500-4 on a SpaceX Falcon 9. CAS500-3, launched on the South Korean Nuri vehicle, is not an Earth-observation satellite but carries three science instruments: a wide-field camera for observing auroras, a plasma and magnetic field monitoring instrument, and a medical 3D bioprinter. CAS500-4, equipped with a wide-area Earth-observation camera, was launched on the Transporter-17 flight of Falcon 9. As of the provided information, 5 units have been built and 4 have been launched.

Documentation

No public datasheet yet — request the datasheet / ICD from the supplier.

Source: en.wikipedia.org ↗

The rest of the range from KAI (Korea Aerospace Industries)

All 1 products →

Payloads & Instruments 1