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View of Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) headquarters in Sacheon, South Gyeongsang Province. (Photo courtesy of KAI) |
[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] Seoul, August 28, 2025 — Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) has filed a lawsuit against the head of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and the president of the Korea Meteorological Institute, seeking to nullify the designation of LIG Nex1 as the preferred bidder for the development of Cheollian-5, South Korea’s first privately led geostationary weather satellite.
KAI has repeatedly raised objections over the selection process, arguing that the evaluation committee and scoring methods were flawed. Industry observers expect disputes to persist until a court ruling is issued.
According to defense industry sources on August 28, KAI lodged the suit with the Seoul Administrative Court on July 2. The case has been assigned to the Administrative Division 7 (Presiding Judge: Ko Cheol-min), with the first hearing scheduled for September 11.
The Cheollian-5 project, South Korea’s third weather satellite program, aims for launch in 2031 to succeed the mission of Cheollian-2A. The KRW 600.8 billion (approx. USD 435 million) program spans seven years and covers three key areas: system and satellite bus development, meteorological payload development, and space weather payload development. Unlike its predecessors, Cheollian-5 will be developed primarily by private industry.
The dispute centers on the system and bus development segment, for which KAI contends that the evaluation criteria were improperly applied. Specifically, KAI argues that the evaluation body accepted unrelated past performance — such as partial subsystem or payload deliveries — as qualifying experience, while other project categories required strictly relevant technical track records. KAI claims that relaxing the eligibility standards for this portion of the project created unfairness.
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
