South Korea will launch a next-generation, mid-sized observation satellite this weekend from a space center in Kazakhstan.

According to the land and science ministries, the satellite, loaded on Russia's Soyuz 2.1a rocket, will take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Saturday morning, local time, or around 3 p.m., Korea time.

The satellite was moved to Kazakhstan in late January where engineers from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute conducted inspections, injected fuel and successfully completed launch preparations over some 50 days.

The satellite will separate from the rocket 64 minutes after takeoff. Its first contact with a ground station in Norway will confirm that it has reached the target orbit.

After a three-month trial run at 497-point-eight kilometers above the Earth's surface, the satellite will then begin to provide precise observation videos from June.

A satellite center at the Land Ministry will process the videos in high quality format for distribution to organizations that need such data for resources management, disaster response and other public and private service sectors.