N. Korean satellite orbiting but 'dead'
Date December 19, 2012
A mighty launch for a fizzer ... the North Korean rocket has succeeded in upsetting the reclusive country's neighbours, but little more. Photo: Reuters/KCNA
A SATELLITE launched with fanfare last week by a defiant North Korea appears to be dead as no signal can be detected, a US-based astrophysicist who monitors spaceflights says.
The United States and its Asian allies have acknowledged that North Korea succeeded on Wednesday in putting an object into orbit that the communist state said was observing the Earth and airing patriotic songs.
Jonathan McDowell, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, says the satellite is clearly in orbit but that no songs can be heard. ''To the best of our knowledge, the satellite isn't operating,'' he said.
''It's definitely up there and it's whizzing around, but it's just not feeling very well.''
Dr McDowell said it was unclear whether the satellite - called the Kwangmyongsong-3 - worked initially and that it remained possible that it was transmitting at a level too faint for detection.
But in another sign of trouble, Dr McDowell said the satellite was fluctuating in brightness. That means the sun is shining at different angles and the satellite is not pointing down at the Earth as it should.
Even if not functioning, the satellite remains in orbit. The commercial site n2yo.com tracked the satellite as orbiting at least 505 kilometres above Earth, in line with North Korean statements.
The state-run Korean Central News Agency last week quoted a scientist saying that the technology was ''flawless'' and that the satellite was broadcasting ''Song of General Kim Il-sung'' and ''Song of General Kim Jong-il''.
