It's Urgent to Secure Key Space Rocket Technology

South Korean scientists and engineers have come to realize how difficult it is to join the ranks of the world's space powers without having sufficient technology for a rocket. Much to the dismay of the public, the country has had to delay its first space launch twice over the past two weeks. No one is sure if there will be no further delays.

Of course, such postponements are frequently made in the launch process as seen in the United States, Russia and other space powers. But, the Seoul government and its space agency find it difficult to dispel some worries and speculation about the nation's nascent space development program.

The blastoff of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) has been postponed six times since October 2006. This year alone it has been delayed three times. Now, the authorities have set the launch date for Aug. 19. As the nation failed to meet the previous schedule set for July 30 and Aug. 11, suspicions abound that there might arise serious problems with the nation's partnership with Russia to build the KSLV-1.

It is somewhat comforting to hear that the reasons for the recent delays were because of a technical problem that later proved to be a simple calculator error. Russia's Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center is in charge of building and testing the main first-stage for the KSLV-1, while the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) is responsible for making the second-stage to carry a 100-kilogram scientific satellite.

Russian engineers postponed the liftoff after they discovered an abnormal spike in the revolutions of the backup booster pump in the main rocket engine during combustion tests. But they said last week that the abnormality was the result of problems in analysis, not a structural fault that could cause the rocket engine to fail.

The delays are rather seen as a minor issue, considering the nature of cooperation between Korea and Russia in developing the space rocket. Some critics have raised suspicions that the Russians are using Korean money to experiment with technologies for their own future rocket projects. South Korea forged partnership ties with Russia in 2004, paying 250 billion won to the space power for the development of the KSLV-1.

However, Russia is under attack for its unwillingness to transfer its rocket technology to Korea. The Russian space center has provided an RD-151 rocket engine to Korea, but it has conducted combustion tests for the KSLV-1 by using an RD-191 engine. The RD-151 engine is inferior to the RD-191 designed for Russia's next-generation space rocket Angara scheduled to be launched in 2011. This may back up the allegations that Russia has been exploiting Korea to finance its own space program.

The Korean government and its space agency should make a clear explanation about such allegations. It is hard for them to avoid criticism that they were pushing the space rocket project too quickly and recklessly without securing enough technologies and finding a faithful partner for the development of the KSLV-1. The nation must learn a lesson that Korea cannot become a space power in a day.