The launch and deployment of three phases of the rocket Korean Satellite Launch Vehicle II worked, as the separation of the payload but not the orbit. The country still lagged behind in the space race.
Le Monde with AFP
First failed attempt. The first South Korean space rocket national design failed to put into orbit its dummy payload after its first launch, Thursday, October 21, the president said, Moon Jae-in. The launch and deployment of three phases of the rocket Korean Satellite Launch Vehicle II ( “vehicle launching Korean satellites”), nicknamed “Nuri” worked, as the separation of the payload, said President Moon but “orbiting a dummy satellite remains an unfinished task.”
It took about ten years to develop this rocket, at a cost of 2,000 billion won (1.46 billion euros). With six engines liquid fuel, it weighs 200 tons and is 47.2 meters long.
A behind
South Korea is the 12 th global economy and one of the most technologically advanced countries including its flagship Samsung Electronics, the largest maker of smartphones and chips in the world. But she has always remained behind in the space race, when the Soviet Union has led the way with the launch of the first satellite in 1957, followed closely by the United States.
In Asia, China, Japan and India have developed advanced space programs, and North Korea is the latest entrant in the club of countries capable of launching a satellite.
The same technology is used for ballistic missiles and space rockets. Pyongyang has put into orbit in 2012 a satellite of 300 kg, that Western countries have condemned as a disguised missile test. Today, only six countries have successfully launched a payload of more than a ton of their rockets.
Aim the Moon
But the South Korean space program shows mixed results: its first two launches in 2009 and 2010, who were using Russian technology, ended in failure. The second rocket exploded after two minutes of flight, Seoul and Moscow are rejecting each other’s fault.
Finally, the country managed launch in 2013, still sitting on engines developed in Russia.
The satellite launch business is increasingly a matter of private companies, including SpaceX, which counts among its clients the US space agency – NASA – and the South Korean army.
A successful Nuri would have offered South Korea a potential “infinite” “rockets are the only means available to humanity to go into space,” said Lee Sang-ryul, Director Korea Institute of aerospace studies, the local newspaper Chosun Biz. “Having such technology means that we have fulfilled the basic requirements to join this competition for space exploration.”
The launch Thursday was a step in the ambitious space program in South Korea, with the objective announced in March by the president, Moon Jae-in, to launch a lunar orbiter next year. “Thanks to the achievements of South Korean rocket systems, the Government will pursue an active program of space exploration,” said the head of state. “We realize the dream of asking our probe on the Moon by 2030.”