North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. (Image Credit: Ed Jones / Getty Images)
North Korea’s new satellite passed over Levi’s Stadium last night, only a couple of hours after the Super Bowl 50 had ended.
The satellite is one of two launched by the country, which have both been tracked by the North American Aerospace Command (NORAD). While they have claimed that they have launched four, experts agree that only two exist; one launched in 2012, and another that was launched on Sunday.
This latest satellite, named Kwangmyongsong 4, passed almost directly over Levi’s Stadium only hours after the Denver Broncos had been crowned the champions of Super Bowl 50. Though it is not believed that North Korea planned its course to coincide with the Super Bowl, it is still hugely coincidental that the satellite traveled above the region on the biggest sporting event in America’s calendar.
Celebrations at Super Bowl 50. (Image Credit: Harry How / Getty Images)
Speaking of this event, Harvard-Smithsonian Center astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told Yahoo: “I have no idea when the end of the Super Bowl was, not a sports fan. But KMS-4 did pass over that part of California at 8:27 p.m. PST at an altitude of 480 kilometers. I calculate it was 35 miles west and 300 miles up as it passed overhead heading almost due north.”
McDowell stated that North Korea’s first satellite, called the Kwangmyongsong 3-2, has given no evidence to suggest that it has transmitted any signals back to the country. North Korea’s State Hydro-Meteorological Administration’ deputy director Ryu Pong Chol has claimed that the latest satellite is being used to monitor the weather, along with mapping natural resources and forest distributions. It is uncertain why North Korea would need such information, considering how notoriously isolated the country remains under the dictatorship of Kim Jong-un.
