More than eight out of every 10 Koreans think the country's space program must continue regardless of the success or failure of an upcoming rocket launch, a poll showed Tuesday.
Out of those supporters, 30.3 percent said the reason is because a space program is closely related to the country's security, with the other 33.7 percent replying the country needs to be able to develop its own rocket thruster, according to the survey by Yonhap News Agency.
The telephone survey was recently conducted on 1,000 people across the country. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent at a 95 percent level of confidence.
South Korea is set to launch its first space rocket, the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), on Friday, but the first-stage thruster of the two-stage rocket was built by Russia.
The launch will be the third of its kind after the first two attempts in 2009 and 2010 ended in failures.
Still, 76 percent of respondents are in favor of the ongoing space program, noting it has advanced the country's space technologies despite the two failed launches.
A successful launch of the KSLV-1, also called Naro-1, on Friday would make the country the world's 10th nation to have successfully launched a space rocket, but its technology gap with other space developers will continue to remain too wide.
Russia, or the former Soviet Union, launched the world's first space rocket in October 1957, which was followed by the United States' Jupiter-C less than four months later.
Desperate to close the gap with other countries with successful space program, including France, Japan and China, the Seoul government has already approved a second space program that seeks to develop an indigenous thrust engine for the country's next space rocket, tentatively named the KSLV-2.
To this end, the government first seeks to develop a 10-ton thrust engine by 2014 and a 75-ton engine in 2018. A successful launch test of the 75-ton engine will lead to the development of the KSLV-2, a three-stage space rocket, by 2021.
One other problem, besides technology, remains.
For the second space program, Korea plans to spend 1.55 trillion won ($1.4 billion) by 2016, but the amount pales in comparison with the budget of other countries.
In 2011, South Korea spent a total of $208 million for its space program, which is less than 0.5 percent of $42.47 billion by the United States and about 3 percent of Russia's $6.56 billion, according to data compiled by EuroConsultant, a market research firm.
"Even if the third launch of the Naro-1 fails, both the government and people need to look at it from a more mature perspective," said Kim Doh-yeon, chairman of the National Science and Technology Commission. "Regardless of the result, investment and interest in space programs must continue to increase." (Yonhap)