SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea launched its largest satellite yet on its nationally developed space rocket early Thursday, the fourth of six planned launches through 2027.

The three-stage Nuri rocket lifted off from the country’s spaceport on an island off the southwestern coastal county of Goheung. Aerospace officials were monitoring whether it will successfully deliver a 516-kilogram (1,137-pound) science satellite and 12 other microsatellites into orbit.

The main satellite, designed to orbit 600 kilometers (372 miles) above Earth, is equipped with a wide-range airglow camera to observe auroral activity and separate systems for measuring plasma and magnetic fields and for testing how life-science experiments perform in space.

The dozen smaller “cube” satellites, developed by un

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