Rocket Launch Marks First Test for Korean Space Ambitions

Engineers of Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and Korean Air assemble the ground test vehicle (GTV), a mock-up of the KSLV-1 rocket, at KARI’s assembly complex in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. / Korea Times

By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter

GOHEUNG, South Jeolla Province ― A decade of effort and anxiety all comes down to a single moment next summer when South Korea attempts to launch a satellite into orbit from its brand new spaceport at the southern tip of the peninsula.

A successful launch would make Korea the ninth country in the world to launch a home-made satellite from its own soil and mark a huge step forward in national ambitions for a presence in space.

The planned rocket launch is further heightening the public interest toward the country's space program, which had been hyped since Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) biologist Yi So-yeon boarded the Soyuz spacecraft in April to become the second Asian woman ever to travel into outer space.

So the pressure to deliver is great for the scientists and engineers at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) who are fully aware that they are working on a job where the chances of failure exceed 70 percent.

Of the dizzying array of facilities and machinery at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, the keypads at the flight termination system (FTS), used to activate the rocket's self-destruct system, is the one high-tech piece of equipment KARI officials are reluctant to talk about.

``Considering the cases of other countries and our level of experience, you have to say the first launch is more than likely to fail,'' said Lee Mun-ki, the director general of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology's big science support bureau.

No wonder government officials are reluctant to confirm whether President Lee Myung-bak will attend the launch or not.

``If the first launch fails, it could take more than a year to dissect and analyze the reasons for the failure and make the adjustments for the second launch,'' Lee said.

``That process would be crucial as it would test the creativeness of our scientists and allow technological progress that will eventually help us achieve the goal of launching our own rocket from Naro in the future,'' he said.

KARI last week revealed the 33-meter, 140-ton ground test vehicle (GTV) that is a mock-up of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-1) rocket that will be launched sometime during the second quarter of next year. The experimental rocket is used to examine engine, machinery and electronics systems, fuel injection and also test ground equipment and the launch pad.

Russia's Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center is providing the technology for the project and designing the 25.8-meter-long lower assembly that contains the liquid-fueled propulsion system of the two-stage rocket.

The upper part of the rocket, which seats the satellite designed by KAIST and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST), was designed by KARI.

The Khrunichev center delivered the first stage of the GTV in August and will send the rocket to Korea sometime during January.

Around 502.4 billion won (about $377 million) will be spent on the KSLV-1 project, including $198 million for the Russians who are contracted for at least two launches.

The first launch is expected as early as April, and if successful, another rocket will be launched from Naro nine months later. The Russians will participate in a third launch if the first two attempts fail.

Korean Air, the country's largest airline, will be responsible for the assembly of the rocket, while Hyundai Heavy Industries, working on a blueprint provided by the Khrunichev center, recently completed construction of the Naro spaceport.

A Loud But Small First Step

Korea first toyed with the idea of developing a space industry in the 1970s when military strongman Park Chung-hee, who was then president, had local companies like Hyundai Electronics look into the possibilities of developing satellites.

However, the half-hearted plans died along with Park's assassination in 1979, and it wasn't until 1996 that the country announced a policy plan to develop space technology. And North Korea's test launching of the ``Taepodong'' missile in 1998 added an element of sibling rivalry to the South's efforts to develop rockets and satellites.

The collapse of the Soviet Union, which forced the transition of many missile manufacturers to commercial companies providing technologies for satellite launching, further allowed Korea to enter the space game.

In 2001, Korea became a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), putting itself in a position to purchase technologies from other countries for non-military rockets.

The KSLV-1 project was enabled after Korea signed a pact for space technology cooperation in 2004.

The second-stage of the KSLV-1, which is to be powered on solid fuel, represents the country's advancement in producing rocket engines. The country gained crucial experience in developing solid-fuel rocket systems through the KSR-1, 2 and 3 rockets developed in the 1990s and rocket engines for the Hyunmoo ballistic missiles.

By its collaboration with the Khrunichev Center, which is producing KSLV-1's 25.8-meter lower assembly that will be powered by liquid oxygen and kerosene, KARI hopes to gain knowledge in developing liquid-fuel rocket engines.

Although the rockets are built for sending a satellite into low Earth orbit (LEO), not much is expected for the 100-kilogram satellite when it actually gets there.

Although its developers dub it a research satellite, the ``Science and Technology Satellite No. 2'' is just a little more than a block of metal designed to regularly send radio signals of its location to Earth during its two-year lifespan.

There are bigger plans for 2017 when the KARI plans to send a 1.5-ton, multipurpose satellite into orbit from Naro, although they have yet to figure out how to use the launch pad during the 10-year gap in assignments.

``KSLV-1's payload was designed to support a 100-kilogram satellite, and you can't be expecting much from such a simple device,'' said Cho Gwang-rae, a KARI senior researcher in charge of the rocket project.

``The real test will be 2017 when we will be attempting to send a real-purpose satellite with a fully domestically developed rocket. If we succeed in that, we can then say we have a space industry,'' he said.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr