posted 08-19-2009 09:11 AM               

[South] Korea's dream of putting its own satellite into orbit was halted during the final countdown, Wednesday, after engineers at the Naro Space Center gave the order to abort the launch due to unspecified technical problems possibly involving the rocket engine.

The country's space agency quickly ruled out a Thursday launch, and some experts say it might take several days, if not weeks, before the country's very first rocket actually gets off the ground.

Experts at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) stopped the countdown of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) with seven minutes and 56 seconds left after finding abnormal data during the automated sequence.

The exact nature of the problems wasn't available as of Wednesday evening, although KARI officials said that the trouble was likely related to controls in a high-pressure tank designed to regulate valves in the rocket. However, they refused to confirm where the tank was located.

KARI has now formed an investigation committee with Russia's Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center, which is providing technology for the project.

According to the Korea Times citing a KARI engineer, the soonest a second launch attempt could come would be in three days.

KSLV-1 sits on the pad during ground tests earlier this year. Credit: KARI

posted 08-22-2009 07:41 AM               

South Korea has rescheduled its first space rocket launch from its own territory for Aug. 25 after a technical glitch halted the countdown minutes before blastoff, the government said Friday.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said the new date reflects weather conditions and time needed to prepare the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) and its scientific satellite for a safe launch.

"We have tentatively set the launch time for 5 p.m., Tuesday (Seoul Time), although this may be altered depending on various developments," said Vice Science and Technology Minister Kim Jung-hyun.

posted 08-25-2009 01:39 PM               

Using a smattering of Russian and domestic technology, South Korea launched a small rocket toward space Tuesday, but the booster's nine-minute flight apparently failed to inject its payload into orbit.

Korean media outlets immediately hailed the launch as a success, but officials grimly declared the flight suffered a failure a few hours later.

Moscow-based Khrunichev, the Russian space contractor that builds Proton rockets, provided the Korea Space Launch Vehicle's first stage. South Korea built the second stage and payload shroud.

posted 06-10-2010 08:19 AM               

South Korea launched a half-Russian, half-Korean rocket toward Earth orbit from the country's southern coast Thursday, but officials say they lost communications with the vehicle approximately two minutes after liftoff.

The Korea Space Launch Vehicle, or KSLV 1, blasted off from the Naro Space Center at 0801 GMT (4:01 a.m. EDT), or at 5:01 p.m. local time. The rocket flew through a nearly transparent deck of clouds about a minute after liftoff.

Live video from the space center showed no signs of any problems during the early moments of the launch, but officials with the Korea Aerospace Research Institute say they lost contact with the rocket 137 seconds into the flight.

Credit: Yonhap

posted 01-29-2013 12:22 PM               

South Korea is preparing its third and final attempt to launch a satellite into space this week.

Two previous attempts to launch the satellite, using the Naro space rocket, have failed.

And with North Korea's successful launch last December, the pressure is on for this last-ditch attempt to succeed.

posted 10-21-2021 10:57 AM               

Nuri rocket completes all flight sequences but fails to put dummy satellite into orbit

President Moon Jae-in said Thursday [Oct. 21] South Korea's first domestically-built space rocket completed all flight sequences as scheduled but fell short of putting a dummy satellite into orbit.

Moon praised scientists and engineers for developing the space rocket that reached a target altitude of 700 kilometers, describing it as a "creditable achievement."

"The test-launch of Nuri-ho was completed. I am proud of it," Moon told the public after witnessing the launch at the Naro Space Center, the nation's sole spaceport. "Regrettably, we did not perfectly reach the goal, but we made a very creditable achievement in the first launch."

After 12 years of development, engineers launched the 200-ton three-stage launch vehicle, KSLV-II — also known as Nuri — that carried the 1.5-ton mock payload at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, 473 kilometers south of Seoul.

Moon said scientists and engineers are investigating why the dummy satellite failed to stay in orbit after it was apparently successful deployed from the rocket. All three stages of the Nuri rocket successfully operated, Moon said.

By making up for shortcomings shown at Thursday's launch, South Korea will try to successfully put a payload into orbit with its second launch of Nuri set for May next year, Moon said.

"Stably putting a dummy satellite into orbit remains an unfinished task. However, lifting a launch vehicle to an altitude of 700 kilometers is a great feat in itself and made us inch closer to space," Moon said.

The success rate for newly developed rockets at first attempt is 30 percent to date, scientists said.

The Nuri rocket uses a clustering of four 75-ton liquid engines in its first stage, a 75-ton liquid engine in the second stage and a 7-ton liquid engine in the third stage.

A successful launch would make South Korea the seventh country in the world to have developed a space launch vehicle that can carry a more than 1-ton satellite, after Russia, the United States, France, China, Japan and India.

The Nuri is the first step for South Korea's ambitious space program, which Moon pledged will meet its target of landing the nation's own probe on the Moon by 2030.

South Korea plans to conduct four more launches of the Nuri until 2027 to increase reliability, officials said.