KOREASAT 116

KOREASAT 116, also cataloged under the designation ANASIS-II and carrying the international designator 2020-048A (NORAD ID 45920), is a South Korean military communications satellite currently operating in geostationary orbit. Launched in July 2020, it represents a significant milestone in South Korea's development of independent, sovereign space-based defense infrastructure. The satellite is operated by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) on behalf of the South Korean government and military establishment, providing dedicated secure communications capabilities that reduce South Korea's reliance on shared or allied satellite assets.

Mission and Purpose

Prior to its launch, ANASIS-II was known internally as KMilSatCom 1, a designation that reflected its role as the first dedicated military communications satellite wholly owned and operated by South Korea. Before this capability existed, South Korean armed forces depended in part on communications channels that were either leased from commercial providers or shared with allied nations — arrangements that inherently limit operational security and flexibility during sensitive or high-stakes military activities.

The satellite's mission centers on providing encrypted, dedicated communications links for South Korean defense and government users. By maintaining its own sovereign military communications asset in geostationary orbit, South Korea gains the ability to coordinate military operations, transmit sensitive command-and-control information, and sustain secure government communications without routing traffic through third-party infrastructure. This kind of dedicated capacity is considered essential for modern military doctrine, which increasingly depends on reliable, low-latency, and jam-resistant satellite communications.

The specific technical parameters of ANASIS-II's communications payload — including frequency bands, transponder capacity, encryption standards, and coverage footprint — are not publicly disclosed in the satellite catalog, as is typical for military communications assets. The satellite's mission type and current operational status are not officially confirmed in open catalog records, reflecting the sensitivity surrounding dedicated defense satellites.

The origins of the program are notable. ANASIS-II came into existence not through a straightforward government procurement of a satellite, but as part of an industrial offset arrangement tied to a major South Korean defense acquisition. When South Korea negotiated the purchase of 40 Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II combat aircraft, the agreement included offset obligations — a common practice in large international defense contracts whereby the selling nation's industry provides economic or industrial benefits to the purchasing country. The construction of a military communications satellite by Airbus Defence and Space formed part of this offset package, making ANASIS-II an unusual case in which a satellite program was born from an aircraft deal rather than a standalone space procurement.

Orbit and Tracking

ANASIS-II occupies a geostationary orbit, the class of orbit that places a satellite at an altitude where its orbital period precisely matches Earth's rotation. The satellite's orbital period is recorded at 1,436.1 minutes — very close to the 24-hour sidereal day — which, combined with its near-zero inclination of 0.0°, means the satellite appears effectively stationary relative to a fixed point on Earth's surface. This characteristic is essential for the satellite's communications mission, as ground-based antennas can be pointed at a fixed position in the sky rather than tracking a moving target.

The satellite's apogee is recorded at 35,798 km and its perigee at 35,791 km, a difference of only 7 km that reflects an orbit of extremely low eccentricity — essentially circular. This tight apogee-perigee spread is typical of well-maintained operational geostationary satellites, where station-keeping maneuvers are regularly performed to counteract perturbations caused by the gravitational influence of the Moon and Sun, as well as solar radiation pressure, which would otherwise gradually alter the orbit over time.

At an inclination of 0.0°, the satellite sits directly above the equatorial plane. Ground stations communicating with ANASIS-II in South Korea look southward and upward toward the equator to establish their link — a geometry that is standard for all users of geostationary satellites in the northern hemisphere.

Because ANASIS-II resides in geostationary orbit at an altitude of approximately 35,790–35,800 km, it is far too faint and distant to be observed with the naked eye under any ordinary conditions. At that range, even large geostationary satellites appear as extremely dim, slow-moving or stationary points of light only detectable with telescopes under dark skies. Casual observers will not be able to spot this satellite.

Design and Operator

ANASIS-II was manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space, the European aerospace and defense conglomerate with extensive experience in building both commercial and government communications satellites. The platform used for ANASIS-II has not been specified in the public catalog record, though Airbus Defence and Space has a well-established portfolio of satellite buses used for military and government communications missions across multiple countries.

The satellite's mass is not listed in the publicly available catalog data for this object, which is not uncommon for military payloads where such figures may be withheld for operational security reasons or simply not submitted to open catalogs by the operating authority.

KARI — the Korea Aerospace Research Institute — serves as the operator of record for ANASIS-II. KARI is South Korea's principal government space agency, founded in 1989 and responsible for a wide range of space activities including satellite development, launch vehicle research, and space exploration programs. While KARI's more publicly prominent work includes the development of domestically designed observation and science satellites, its role overseeing ANASIS-II reflects the agency's broader mandate to support national space capabilities, including those with defense applications.

The satellite was launched on 20 July 2020 (recorded in catalog data as 19 July 2020 at 20:00 Eastern Daylight Time, corresponding to 20 July in Coordinated Universal Time), aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The use of a commercial American launch vehicle for a South Korean military satellite was itself noteworthy, illustrating the degree to which the commercial launch market — particularly SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9 — had become the default choice for government and military satellite operators worldwide by the early 2020s.

Significance and Legacy

The arrival of ANASIS-II in orbit marked a turning point for South Korean defense space policy. For a country that sits in one of the most geopolitically tense regions of the world — with a heavily armed adversary to its north, complex relationships with regional powers, and deep alliance commitments to the United States — the ability to communicate securely through sovereign satellite infrastructure carries strategic weight that goes well beyond the technical specifications of any single spacecraft.

Prior to ANASIS-II, South Korean military planners were constrained by the absence of a dedicated national military communications satellite. The launch of this spacecraft gave the Republic of Korea Armed Forces an independent, persistent communications backbone in space for the first time, a capability that most peer military establishments had developed decades earlier. In this sense, ANASIS-II is not merely another entry in the geostationary belt — it represents South Korea's arrival as a nation with full-spectrum military space capability.

The satellite's unconventional origin as a product of an F-35 offset agreement is also historically interesting. Industrial offset arrangements have long been a feature of major defense contracts, but producing a dedicated military communications satellite through such a mechanism is relatively unusual, and the ANASIS-II case is sometimes cited in discussions of how smaller nations can leverage large procurement programs to accelerate the development of adjacent strategic capabilities.

South Korea has continued to invest in military space infrastructure following ANASIS-II, with subsequent programs aimed at expanding its satellite communications capacity and developing reconnaissance satellite capabilities. The launch of ANASIS-II can therefore be understood not as a standalone achievement but as the opening chapter of a more sustained effort to build a comprehensive national space-based defense architecture. As of the time of writing, ANASIS-II remains in orbit, continuing to fulfill its role as South Korea's foundational military communications asset in geostationary orbit.