An American space expert says North Korea has succeeded in launching a satellite into space.

Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics says the three-stage Unha-3 rocket launched early Wednesday morning delivered the satellite into orbit and constituted "a perfect success for North Korea."

He says that based on his own calculations an object identified by U.S. space command as "39026, 2012-072A" was from the North Korean satellite.

The apparent North Korean success comes after two earlier failures with the Unha-3 rocket, including one in April that flamed out after only 90 seconds.