Hanwha Systems completed South Korea’s largest private satellite manufacturing plant on Jeju Island, betting ₩100 billion ($68 million) that the country’s southernmost province can become a hub for the commercial space industry.
The Hanwha Jeju Space Center, spanning 30,000 square meters on the site of a former university campus, is designed to churn out up to 100 small synthetic aperture radar satellites per year. The company held a completion ceremony Tuesday after 20 months of construction.
Hanwha chose Jeju for its geographical advantages: proximity to the equator aids launch velocity, while surrounding waters offer clear drop zones. The company already launched a SAR satellite from Jeju waters in December 2023.
The facility houses assembly lines, thermal-vacuum chambers for simulating space conditions, and antenna testing equipment. Hanwha plans to sell SAR imagery for climate monitoring, disaster response, and security applications.
Whether the ambitious production targets prove realistic remains to be seen. The global small satellite market is increasingly competitive, with SpaceX and other operators driving down launch costs while flooding low-Earth orbit with thousands of spacecraft.
Jeju officials hope the center anchors a broader space industry cluster, noting that vocational school graduates have already been hired at the site.
