A model of a very-low-Earth-orbit (VLEO) SAR satellite to be produced at the Hanwha Jeju Space Center. (Yonhap)
JEJU, Dec. 2 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea took a major step toward expanding its private-sector space industry on Tuesday as Hanwha Systems opened the nation’s largest commercial satellite manufacturing complex on Jeju Island.
The new Hanwha Jeju Space Center, located in Seogwipo’s Hawon Techno Campus, spans 30,000 square meters—roughly the size of four soccer fields—and houses some of the country’s most advanced satellite production and testing facilities. The center’s completion marks the transformation of a former university site into a full-scale space-industry hub.
The facility, built entirely with private capital, is designed to produce up to 100 small satellites a year starting in 2025. It includes clean rooms, assembly lines, thermal-vacuum chambers and near-field antenna test sites, alongside mission-control and environmental-testing rooms.
Hanwha said the center will focus primarily on manufacturing synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites capable of capturing high-resolution images regardless of weather or lighting—technology increasingly used for climate monitoring, disaster response, resource tracking and defense.
The company is developing progressively higher-resolution SAR models, including a next-generation VLEO (very low Earth orbit) satellite expected to deliver 15-centimeter imagery from altitudes below 400 kilometers. Hanwha has also integrated payloads, bus systems and solar panels into a single structure to allow more satellites to be loaded onto each rocket, reducing launch costs.
This is the Jeju Space Center in Hawon-dong, Seogwipo, completed by Hanwha Systems on December 2. (Yonhap)
The Jeju launch follows Hanwha’s expansion of its defense production complex in the city of Gumi last month, part of a broader strategy to establish parallel hubs for defense exports and space manufacturing.
Speaking at the ceremony, Hanwha Systems CEO Sohn Jae-il said the facility represents “the largest and most advanced private satellite-production site in Korea,” and vowed to make it a core engine of the country’s fast-growing commercial space ecosystem. Jeju’s southern latitude and available downrange zones, he added, make it “an optimal location for satellite launches.”
Jeju Governor Oh Young-hun said the center positions the island as a central node in South Korea’s “New Space” sector. With the island already hosting Korea’s satellite navigation ground systems, he said the new manufacturing hub completes a “Jeju-to-space” supply chain in which satellites built on Jeju are launched from nearby waters.
The provincial government expects the project to boost local employment and strengthen Jeju’s emerging tech base. Of about 150 employees across the island’s space-related firms, roughly 60 percent are local residents, and vocational-school partnerships have begun channeling graduates directly into the new facility.
Jeju plans to expand its space-industry portfolio beginning in 2026 by advancing into satellite-data applications in agriculture, marine management, environmental monitoring and transportation. The island will seek government designation as a “satellite data utilization cluster,” aiming to build a full end-to-end ecosystem—from manufacturing to operations to downstream services.
Officials say that as tourism and agriculture face long-term limits, space technology could become Jeju’s next engine of growth.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
