By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff reporter
The mid-air explosion of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle I (KSLV-I) has set back Korea’s efforts to join ranks of advanced countries in space exploration.
The years of joint work with Russian scientists and industrial involvement may come as a consolation for Korea at least for now.
KARI officials claim that the experience of working with the Russians in the KSLV-I project will greatly enhance the abilities of local engineers and advance efforts in completing the country’s next space rocket, the KSLV-II, which will predominately rely on locally developed technologies.
About 160 Korean firms were involved in the project. Korean Air, the country’s biggest airline, handled the assembly process for the two-stage rocket, while Hanwha, a major chemicals firm, was involved in developing the “orbital motor” of the KSLV-I second stage, which is used to push the payload satellite into its proper orbit.
Equipment maker Doosan Infracore built the ground-based tracking systems for the rocket launch, while Hyundai Heavy Industries, working on a blueprint provided by the Khrunichev center, completed construction of the Naro spaceport.
The state-run Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET), which thrives on providing numerical justifications for government press releases, claimed that a successful KSLV-1 launch alone could have an economic value of up to 2.3 trillion won ($1.86 billion).
The report cited factors such as advancement of related technologies, improved reputation for the domestic aerospace industry and the country’s enhanced “national brand image.” On the other side of the spectrum are skeptics, who wonder whether the nation’s massive spending on the rocket launch, currently amounting to 502.5 billion won over eight years, will ever be justified by meaningful returns, as the country probably has no future in satellite launch services. The truth arguably lies in the vast space in between.
As with its neighboring nations, Korea’s aspirations for space are chiefly motivated by national pride and commercial development.
However, unlike China, Japan and India, which are boasting plans for manned spaceflights and drooling over the increasingly lucrative market in satellite launch services, the Koreans can only maintain a more modest, pick-and-choose approach.
Of course, it would be difficult to suggest that Seoul was blowing money in the wind over the KSLV-1 project ? the experience in building the Naro spaceport, operating the launch support systems, and the designing and testing of rocket parts aren’t to be discounted.
However, considering how the country’s aerospace industry is shaping up, it could also be argued that the brand new Naro Space Center perhaps will never gain a central presence in the sector’s commercial growth.
Korea is well-positioned to establish a niche in areas such as low-orbit observation satellites and technologies for unmanned vehicles, and the country’s advancement in the industries of manufacturing, electronics, computing and automotives could prove to provide a critical edge in the designing of space equipment.
KARI has two other crucial missions for this year ? the launching of the Communications, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite 1 (COMS-1), an observation satellite that could also be used for communications purposes, and the Korean Multi-purpose Satellite-5 (KOMPSAT-5), which is designed to provide SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) image information.
The COMS-1 will be one of the payloads strapped to the Ariane- 5 rocket that will be launched from the Guiana Space Center, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) spaceport in French Guiana later this month, while the KOMPSAT-5 will be launched from Kazakhstan by the end of the year.
KARI says it will continue to guide efforts in developing satellites aimed for industrial purposes or improving the aspects of daily life, such as better weather reports and advanced telecommunications services.
It’s involvement in more lavish projects such as moon exploration or International Space Station (ISS)-related assignments will be limited to cooperation with international partners.