South Korea's performance verification satellite carried into space with the successful launch of the country's first homegrown rocket, Nuri, is set to begin releasing smaller cube-shaped satellites from Wednesday.

The four cube satellites, which are currently secured to the performance verification satellite, will be separated one by one every two days.

Developed by local universities for research purposes, these satellites will be used to observe the Earth's atmosphere, Baekdu Mountain and fine dust levels across the country.

One of the contributing universities, Chosun University, will attempt to establish contact on Thursday with the first cube satellite released.