Arianespace has been awarded a contract by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) to launch two satellites in its GEO-KOMPSAT-2 programme.

Under the contract, Arianespace will launch GEO-KOMPSAT-2A (GK2A) and GEO-KOMPSAT-2B (GK2B) satellites aboard its Ariane 5 vehicles in May 2018 and March 2019 respectively from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

The GK2A and GK2B will be the seventh and eighth South Korean satellites to be launched by Arianespace.

Arianespace chairman Stéphane Israël said: "Our last launch for KARI occurred in 2010. Now, we have been chosen again by KARI to launch these two impressive meteorological observation missions.

"The GK2A and GK2B will be the seventh and eighth South Korean satellites to be launched by Arianespace."

"Contributing to Korean space achievements is a great honour for Arianespace."

Built by KARI at its facility in Daejeon, South Korea, the GEO-KOMPSAT-2 satellites are designed to perform meteorological observation and space weather monitoring, and ocean and earth environmental monitoring.

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The satellites will weigh 3,500kg at launch, and will be positioned at 128.2° E geostationary orbit.

GK2A will be equipped with advanced meteorological imager (AMI) and Korean Space environment monitor (KSEM) payloads, while the GK2B will have geostationary ocean colour imager-II and environmental monitoring sensor (GEMS) payloads.

The company said it has worked together with Korean satellite technology research centres for 25 years to launch scientific microsatellites, and the COMS multi-mission satellite.