The South Korean military's new space center effectively monitored a Russian satellite that fell back to Earth earlier this week, the Air Force said Wednesday.
  

The Space Operations Center was established in July as part of South Korea's efforts to beef up space war capabilities.
  

Confronted with North Korea's 1.1-million troops across the border, the South's 600,000-strong troops have traditionally focused on bolstering combat readiness on the peninsula.
  

The Air Force, however, has launched an ambitious project to develop its own space surveillance system by 2030 and master skills for space war by 2040.

  
The opening of the space center at the Gyeryongdae military command in South Chungcheong Province is the first step toward that goal.

  
"Without the Space Operations Center, we would have not been able to monitor the trajectory of the Russian satellite, raising public concern," an Air Force official said.
  

The center received real-time information on the satellite from the U.S. Strategic Command under a deal between the two militaries signed in September last year.
  

It distributed the information to five domestic agencies including the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, the country's control tower for a civilian-military joint project to counter falling objects from space.

  
Russia lost the advanced military ocean surveillance satellite launched on Saturday as it failed to separate from the rocket due to a technical malfunction. It fell back to Earth on Tuesday. (Yonhap)