By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Sunday that it has selected Aug. 11 as the new date for its first space launch.
Although technical issues had forced a delay in the attempt originally scheduled for July 30, government officials had been hoping to pull off the launch as quickly as possible to avoid the typhoon-affected months of September and October.
``Should weather conditions permit, and that means if we can avoid heavy rain and lightning on that day, the rocket will be launched on Aug. 11,'' a ministry official said.
``The rocket will be moved to the launch pad two days before and we will hold a rehearsal (dry run) the day before the countdown. We will notify the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization of the new launch date.''
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.
Korea was forced to delay the launch when Russia's Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center, which is providing the technology for the project, informed local authorities that the final test for the rocket's liquid-fuel propulsion system had been moved to sometime after July 27, four days after the original deadline. The testing was completed on July 30 and Naro engineers, including Russian experts, are currently in the process of attaching KSLV-1's lower assembly to the upper assembly, which will carry a satellite.
Aug. 11 is seen as the earliest possible launch date, as Korean authorities have said it will take at least 10 days to assemble the two-stage rocket and prepare the launch pad after the test results are analyzed.
The 33.5-meter, 140-ton KSLV-1 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 (GIST).
The Khrunichev Center developed the 25.8-meter long lower assembly that contains the propulsion system. Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), the country's space agency, designed the solid-fuel upper portion of the rocket, which will seat the satellite.
The launch had initially been set for December 2008, but was eventually moved to this summer after the completion of the launch pad took longer than expected.
In forcing the latest delay, the Russian production center needed more time to tweak the software of the testing equipment in their laboratory. It is responsible for examining the KSLV-1's propulsion system.
The Russians have now completed both the cold flow test, which refers to testing the liquid-propellant rocket engine without firing it, and the combustion test, in which the rocket engine is fully fired up, ministry officials said.
The Khrunichev 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, the Khrunichev Center is required to prepare another rocket within nine months.