South Korea's next-generation midsized observation satellite has successfully launched, following two postponements over problems detected in the carrier rocket.

The Ministry of Science and ICT said on Monday the 540-kilogram satellite, loaded on Russia's Soyuz 2.1a rocket, blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:07 a.m. local time, or 3:07 p.m. Korea time. 

The spacecraft, named CAS500-1, was confirmed to have entered its target orbit a little over two hours later, making its first contact with a base station in Norway. 

The Russian carrier rocket was initially scheduled to launch on Saturday, carrying 38 satellites from 18 countries. But the launch was pushed back to Sunday and then to Monday due to a glitch discovered in its electrical ground support equipment. 

Developed with home-grown technologies with a budget of around 160 billion won, 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.

Equipped with a locally developed imaging sensor system, the satellite will provide precise observation videos at 497-point-eight kilometers above the Earth's surface.