{"id":278622,"date":"2026-01-11T02:08:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T02:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/278622\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T02:08:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T02:08:19","slug":"south-koreas-innospace-to-launch-hanbit-rockets-from-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/278622\/","title":{"rendered":"South Korea&#8217;s Innospace to Launch Hanbit Rockets from Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/South-Koreas-Innospace-to-Launch-Hanbit-Rockets-from-Portugal.webp.webp\" alt=\"South Korea\u2019s Innospace has signed an agreement with Portugal\u2019s Atlantic Spaceport Consortium to launch from the Malbusca Spaceport on the island of Santa Maria.\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5870 lazyload\"  data- style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 800px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 800\/500;\"\/>Credit: Atlantic Spaceport Consortium<\/p>\n<p>South Korean launch services provider Innospace has signed an agreement with the Atlantic Spaceport Consortium (ASC) to conduct flights of its Hanbit rocket family from the Malbusca Spaceport on the Portuguese island of Santa Maria.<\/p>\n<p>The Atlantic Spaceport Consortium was founded in 2019 with the aim of establishing a commercial launch facility on the island of Santa Maria, around 1,500 kilometres off the coast of Portugal. In August 2025, Portugal\u2019s Autoridade Nacional de Comunica\u00e7\u00f5es (ANACOM), the country\u2019s primary space authority, <a href=\"https:\/\/europeanspaceflight.com\/portugals-asc-granted-licence-for-santa-maria-launch-centre\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">granted the consortium a licence<\/a> to build and operate the facility. This licence is currently valid for a period of five years.<\/p>\n<p>In July 2025, just prior to receiving its spaceport licence, the Atlantic Spaceport Consortium <a href=\"https:\/\/europeanspaceflight.com\/spaceforest-expands-launch-plans-with-portuguese-island-agreement\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signed an agreement with Polish suborbital launch services provider SpaceForest<\/a>. The agreement covers a single flight of its Perun rocket, which is expected to take place in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>On 8 January, the Malbusca Spaceport secured its first tenant aiming for orbital launches, with the consortium signing an agreement with South Korea\u2019s Innospace. The agreement is expected to cover operations up until 2030, with an initial launch expected from the island in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInnospace\u2019s decision to launch from Santa Maria is a strong signal of international confidence in Portugal\u2019s space ambitions,\u201d said Ricardo Conde, President of the Portuguese Space Agency. \u201cThis agreement helps accelerate the path towards safe, sustainable, and regulated orbital launch services from the Azores.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to Innospace CEO Soojong Kim, the agreement represents the company\u2019s \u201cfirst launch site in Europe.\u201d This appears to call into question its involvement with Andoya Space in Norway. The company signed a memorandum of understanding with Andoya Space in January 2022 to launch from its planned spaceport, which was officially opened in November 2023. Innospace also lists Andoya Space as one of its official launch sites on its website. In addition to its European presence, Innospace also has launch facilities in Brazil and Australia.<\/p>\n<p>        Keep European Spaceflight Independent<\/p>\n<p>Your donation will help European Spaceflight to continue digging into the stories others miss. Every euro keeps our reporting alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Atlantic Spaceport Consortium South Korean launch services provider Innospace has signed an agreement with the Atlantic Spaceport&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278623,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[270],"tags":[140679,18,19,17,133,451],"class_list":{"0":"post-278622","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-atlantic-spaceport-consortium","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115874031629509981","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}