North Korea launched a satellite, then apparently blew up its booster

Enlarge / A television monitor at a train station in South Korea shows an image of the launch of North Korea’s Chollima 1 rocket Tuesday. (credit: Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

North Korea launched a small military spy satellite Tuesday on the country’s first successful orbital launch since 2016. This, alone, would be newsworthy, but this launch comes with a twist.

An automated camera operated by Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea, captured the launch. The camera is part of a worldwide network of all-sky cameras to detect meteors streaking through Earth’s atmosphere. On Tuesday night, it caught a glimpse of North Korea’s Chŏllima 1 rocket climbing higher in the night sky until its booster engine cuts off. Then an upper stage engine fires to continue powering its payload into orbit, leaving behind the rocket’s spent expendable booster to fall into the Yellow Sea west of the Korean Peninsula.

Then, the night vision camera recorded a bright fireball. Instead of plunging into the sea, the booster explodes. It’s unusual to see a spent booster blow up during the launch of expendable rocket, so this raises questions. Did North Korea intentionally explode its rocket?