S.Korea first rocket launch set for August 11

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South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak poses with researchers in front of the KSLV-1 rocket at the Naro Space Centre in Goheung, 475 km south of Seoul in June 2009. South Korea has rescheduled its first space rocket launch to August 11 after repeatedly postponing it due to technical reasons, officials have said.

South Korea has rescheduled its first space rocket launch from its soil to August 11 after repeatedly postponing it due to technical reasons, officials said Saturday.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said South Korea and Russia, a co-builder of the rocket, set the new launch date after talks.

"Both sides have set August 11 for blast-off," Kim Hong-Gab, a spokesman for the Korea Aerospace Research Institute affiliated with the ministry, told AFP.

He added weather conditions on the day would be "a decisive factor" to determine if the launch would go ahead as scheduled.

The previously-scheduled launch for around July 30 was postponed -- for a third time -- as Russians who had built the first stage of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 called for more time for testing.

Blast-off had already been delayed from late 2008 to late June this year after China's Sichuan earthquake last year caused problems securing key parts.

South Korea plans to put a satellite weighing 100 kilograms (220 pounds) into a low earth orbit with the planned launch from the newly-built Naro Space Centre in Goheung, 475 kilometres (300 miles) south of Seoul.

South Korea is eager to join Asia's space race. In November 2007 it announced a plan to launch a lunar orbiter by 2020 and send a probe to the moon five years after that.

It unveiled the project one month after China launched its first lunar orbiter and two months after Japan.

In April last year Seoul sent its first astronaut into space aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.

(c) 2009 AFP

   

• pres68y - Aug 02, 2009
  • Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
  I got it!
  If S Korea launches a rocket it's good.
  If N Korea launches a rocket it's bad.
  No matter what the objective is...
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• omatumr - Aug 02, 2009
  • Rank: 2 / 5 (1)
  SCIENCE CANNOT BE MONOPOLIZED
  
  

  I got it!
  
  If S Korea launches a rocket it's good.
  If N Korea launches a rocket it's bad.
  No matter what the objective is...

  
  
  I agree.
  
  Almost all efforts to monopolize scientific knowledge are short-sighted and eventually fail.
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• earls - Aug 03, 2009
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  While I agree with you in spirit, pres68y, there's a major difference: "South Korea's nuclear weapons research program effectively ended on April 23, 1975 with its ratification of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."
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• yyz - Aug 03, 2009
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  While I'm all for globalization of access to space, I most heartily agree with earls on this point. Given North Korea's acknowledgment of possessing a small quantity of fission devices (atomic bombs), do you really think Pyongyang is seriously pursuing a peaceful use of space for purely scientific purposes? This seems naive and delusional, given NK's recent bellicose statements, rejection of the Armistice agreement, and recent tests of their atomic bomb and short-to-medium range missiles.
  
  On a related subject, I can foresee this increased access to low earth orbit by many nations as an invitation to greatly increase the problem of 'space junk'. As I noted before, I'm all for globalization of access to space. I can only hope that expertise in space junk minimization and mitigation is also being incorporated into the design of these new launch vehicles. This is a rapidly growing problem that will only be exacerbated by the increased presence of multinational space programs.
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• earls - Aug 03, 2009
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  In that vein, yyz: http://spacefello...ite-kit/
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• yyz - Aug 03, 2009
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  Thanks for that link, earls. It's certainly a step in the right direction. Hopefully, national space programs around the world are also looking into space junk mitigation for their sometimes heavier/larger payloads, especially spent boosters and fairings and possible de-orbit solutions for some hardware. While this may increase the cost to national programs, it's sorely needed to address this problem. I especially liked the price tag of these TubeSat systems ($8000)!
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• yyz - Aug 04, 2009
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  This story, wrt the TubeSat proposal, along with several objections , can be found at the Universe Today post here: http://www.univer...000-usd/ . Check out some of the thought-provoking responses (both pro and con) leveled at this concept.
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