According to the mid and long term plan of space development established in 2013, Korea is aiming to enhance its national status and contribute to national economic development by strengthening its independent space development capability. One of the six major tasks includes "satellite information application system for the improvement of the quality of life of the people'. Moving away from supply focused policy and providing customized satellite information focusing on demanders such as weather, ocean, environment, agriculture and forest, disasters, communication navigation, and land management, the purpose of this project is to expand satellite application service by constructing a satellite information application support system at government level.

The history of Korea's satellites started with the launch of 'KITSAT No. 1' on August 11, 1992 at the French Guiana Kourou Space Center in South America. The KAIST Satellite Research Center was built by the Surrey University in the UK and after such success, Korea too became a satellite power. In September 1993, 'KITSAT No. 2', developed by Korea's own technology, was launched.

Subsequently, in 1996, the mid and long term basic plan for space development was established as a national plan the development of a practical satellite was promoted based on this.

The multi-purpose satellite (Arirang Satellite) No. 1 was developed for three purposes: mapping of the Korean peninsula, ocean observation and scientific experiment. For this, a high resolution panchromatic electro-optical camera with a spatial resolution of 6.6m, a multi-spectral ocean observation camera with a spatial resolution of 1km, a high energy particle detector (HEPD) and an ionospheric measurement sensor (IMS) was equipped to successful launch it on December 1992.

After four more years of activity than planned, it finished its mission on February 2008.

The Earth observation satellite developed by Korea is the multi-purpose practical satellite No.2. It was successfully launched in July 2006 as a multi-spectral optical satellite with a spatial resolution of 1m, designed for the purpose of monitoring and coping with large-scale disasters, domestic and overseas precision digital map, monitoring of ocean pollution and red tide, monitoring of agricultural disasters and exploration of natural resources. Until now, it is conducting missions to observe the Earth years after its life expectancy.

The multi-purpose satellite No.3 launched in May 2012 is an ultra-high resolution Earth observation satellite equipped with an electro-optical camera with a spatial resolution of 0.7m. It is used to observe the Earth by circulating 15 times a day at an altitude of 685 km. It has significance as the first sub-meter class optical satellite in Korea. The high resolution electronic optical camera of multi-purpose satellite No. 3, AAEISS-A (Advanced Earth Imaging Sensor System-A), which was developed based on the design of multi-purpose satellite No. 3 and launched in March 2015, enables the optical imaging of 0.5m class which is the highest resolution among domestic satellites and thus after the US, provides video of 50cm or less. Furthermore, it is significant in that it is the world's first satellite to be equipped with a mid-infrared sensor, and it can detect the heat of the ground regardless of the nighttime or weather conditions, observing fire, volcanic activity, urban heat island phenomenon. It is operated at an altitude of 528km in the sun's synchronous orbit, passing Korean airspace two times (day and night) everyday to shoot the Korean peninsula for a maximum of 50 minutes.

The mompsat image data is provided for users in both public and commercial sectors into the distribution of a consultative body, public distribution and commercial distribution in accordance with the "Regulation regarding Provision and Application of Satellite Information" of the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning. The related work is managed by the National Satellite Information Application Support Center at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (hereinafter KARI). The application of satellite information for the purpose of national demand is supported free of charge centering on the 'Satellite Information Application Consultative Body' and an exclusive distribution system for this has constructed and being operated. The public distribution of satellite images for nonprofit public projects and support of scholarly research is managed by KARI and can be distributed through a certain procedure after registering as a user group. Other satellite information for domestic and overseas commercial use is sold through private sales agencies and one must obey the National Spatial Information Security Management Guidelines.

The 'Arirang Satellite Search/Order System' is being operated for the distribution of the multi-purpose practical satellites.

The principal purpose of the weather satellites is to the application of weather forecasts. For this, the Korea Meteorological Administration is operating a weather satellite receiver and receives, processes and analyzes signals from weather satellites to produce diverse weather satellite analytical data, which are used for daily weather forecasts and forecasts of weather events such as yellow dust, heavy rain, and typhoon . The Korea Meteorological Agency has a system that can easily and quickly retrieve satellite images and analysis data from the meteorological offices across the country through the intranet. It provides weather forecasters with diverse satellite analysis data and detailed weather information for safe operation of airplanes and ships. The primary goal is to generate input data for numerical forecasts using supercomputers and to support local forecasting services.

Some data such as satellite images and sea surface temperature analysis data, are also provided to private forecasting operators and institutions. The data is transmitted through a private forecasting service provider support server operated by the Korea Meteorological Administration and the he private forecasting service providers use the weather data including satellite data to develop and sell specialized weather service products.

The satellite data possessed by the Korea Meteorological Administration can be said to be highly useful as research data for weather research institutes and universities. To support the application of academic and research purposes, a weather satellite data providing system (ftp site) is constructed to manage user accounts and passwords so that users outside the Korea Meteorological Administration can easily access them. The data contained in the weather satellite data providing system are open only to national and municipal agencies that conduct joint research projects with the Korea Meteorological Administration. The other weather information service for general users is to provide the data at a certain fee through the petition application procedure according to the petition management regulation. It provides weather satellite images and analysis data available from the Korea Meteorological Agency and the National Weather Satellite Center homepage. The satellite data being serviced are as follows.