Rocket Launch Delayed Again

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

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Rocket Launch Delayed Again

Posted : 2009-08-04 21:16

Updated : 2009-08-04 21:16

By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

It looks like South Korea will need more time to get its space ambitions off the ground. The country was expecting its first launch into space next week, but the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Tuesday that technical issues have forced another delay.

The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) will be the first spacecraft to be launched from the Naro Space Center, the country's brand new spaceport at the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula.

The launch was originally scheduled for October in 2006, but has been postponed five times. Last week, the launch date was reset for Aug. 11. Russia's Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center, which is providing the technology for the project, informed local authorities that it needs further time to adjust some "technical issues" detected during its recent testing of the rocket's liquid-fuel propulsion system, ministry officials said.

Seoul officials are intent on pulling off the launch as quickly as possible to avoid the typhoon-prone months of September and October. The country has set its "launch window" from Aug. 11 through Aug. 18 to account for variables such as weather conditions, and it remains to be seen whether the delay will be a matter of days or weeks.

"Right now, we can't say for sure whether we can pull off the launch before Aug. 18," said the official.

"The Khrunichev Center said it needed more time to check up on the technical issues. We have yet to receive full details of what the problems are, but we don't think they will be serious and we are still confident about an August launch."

This is the second time in less than a month that the center has requested Korean authorities to reschedule the launch. Previously, it was moved from July 30 to Aug. 11 after the center said it needed more time to complete the test of the rocket engine.

The 33.5-meter, 140-ton KSLV-1, the result of a 502.5 billion won (about $412 billion) investment, will carry an experimental satellite, the 100-kilogram "Science and Technology Satellite No. 2," jointly designed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology.

Khrunichev developed the 25.8-meter long lower assembly that contains the propulsion system.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute the country's space agency, designed the solid-fuel upper portion of the rocket, which will carry the satellite.

The center has built two rockets, one currently used for testing at its laboratory and the other to be used for the actual launch in Korea. Should the first launch fail, it is required to provide another rocket within nine months.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr