By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
GOHEUNG, South Jeolla Province ― Software flaws have grounded South Korea's first ever space launch for now, and it remains to be seen whether the problem revealed Thursday will prove a one-time annoyance or a nagging headache.
A day after engineers at the Naro Space Center halted the countdown for the Korea Space Launch Vehicle 1 (KSLV-1), the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) officials explained that the mechanical troubles were caused by a malfunction of software controlling a high-pressure tank within the rocket engine.
``It is a fairly routine problem,'' said Lee Ju-jin, the president of KARI, the country's space agency.
``There was no problem with the hardware. The pressure on the helium high-pressure tank, which regulates valves inside the rocket, was normal, but the software read it as low and this caused the computerized system to abort the countdown.''
The team of engineers from KARI and Russia's Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center, which is providing the technology for the project, is currently analyzing the software problem, as well as its overall effect on the rocket's mechanism, which could take two or three days.
Should the process drag out longer than that, the KSLV-1 launch could be moved to the typhoon-affected month of September, as the current ``launch window'' reported to international aviation and maritime authorities extends until Aug. 26.
And, even should Mother Nature cooperate, it's hard to know whether or not the software problems that disrupted the KSLV-1 launch once won't occur on the second attempt.
A number of KARI officials told The Korea Times that the software used in Wednesday's launch attempt at the Naro Space Center was somewhat different from what the Khrunichev Center engineers were testing in Moscow. So, aside of relying on a rocket engine that had never been proved in flight, KSLV-1 will also be controlled by software that has not been tested in real heat.
``Both software (programs) were developed by the Khrunichev Center, but aren't identical in the copy-kind of sense. The combustion tests conducted by the Russians were only about the rocket engine, but the software used at Naro's launching pad controls both the lower and upper assemblies of the two-stage rocket as well as the connection with the automated launching equipment,'' a KARI official said.
``The Khrunichev Center used a countdown sequence in the combustion tests of the rocket engine, but it was shorter than the actual launch sequence.''
The software problems revealed Wednesday comes at a time when there were already controversies over whether the Khrunichev Center had properly tested KSLV-1's rocket engine, RD-151, in their labs before giving the Korean launch a green light.
The KSLV-1 launch is crucial for the Russians, as it equals as the first stage test for their yet-to-be-flown ``Angara'' rocket, which has been in development since the mid-1990s and is expected to make its maiden flight in 2011.
The Khrunichev Center is responsible for the development of the Angara rockets, expected to become the mainstay of the Russian unmanned rocket fleet in the future.
The KSLV-1 is designed with the same structure elements in an Angara first stage, including its rocket engine. Its RD-151 rocket engine, developed by Russia's NPO Energomash, is basically a derivative of the RD-191M engine that will be used for the Angara 1.1, the first rocket in the Angara family. The RD-191 provides a thrust of 190 tons, while the RD-151 has a thrust of 170.
There have been suspicions over whether the Khrunichev Center had fired up a RD-191 engine, not an RD-151 one, in the propulsion tests for the KSLV-1 first stage. Although the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology flatly denied such allegations, some KARI insiders have been telling reporters that the Russians likely used an RD-191 in the combustion tests, but making software adjustments to match KSLV-1's flight profile.
Park Jeong-joo, who heads KSLV systems development at KARI, refused to comment on how the software malfunction that grounded the KSLV-1 flight on Wednesday, was connected to the functions of the rocket engine. He declined to discuss the exact location of the helium tank within the KSLV-1 first stage and whether it regulates the valves in the combustion chamber or in fuel control systems.
``That is classified information that we are prevented from talking about,'' Park said.
However, KARI officials pretty much hinted that the software problems were related to the fuel systems when they said the flaws weren't discovered in the technical rehearsal on Tuesday because fuel wasn't injected during the process.
With KSLV-1 representing the first out-of-lab test for the RD-191M engine and Angara rocket module, the Russians are undoubtedly pressured to perform.
Of course, should KSLV-1 fail, the Russians can take comfort in the fact that somebody else paid for the mess, 505.2 billion won (about $405 million) to be exact, and they can still say they have yet to lose a real Angara rocket in flight.
The KSLV-1 launch was originally scheduled for late 2005, but was postponed six times before the science ministry settled on Aug. 19 last week.
The Khrunichev Center twice delayed the launch in the past month, saying it needed more time to ensure that the KSLV-1 rocket engine and propulsion system was working properly.
Should problems continue, local authorities will likely face more questions over whether they allowed their Russian partners to use Korean taxpayer money to test their own rocket engine, rather than the exact one used in KSLV-1.