The second test launch of the South Korea of the Nuri rocket, produced in the country, successfully put several satellites into orbit on Tuesday (21), officials said. The country takes a big step forward in efforts to boost its space program after a first test failed in 2021.
The rocket took off from the Naro Space Center on the south coast of South Korea at 4 pm local time. A 162.5kg satellite designed to check the rocket’s performance successfully made contact with a base station in Antarctica after entering orbit, officials said.
The rocket also launched a fictional 1.3-ton satellite and four small cube-shaped satellites developed by universities for research into orbit.
“The sky of the Korean universe is now open,” Science and Technology Minister Lee Jong-ho said in a statement. “Our science and technology have made great strides.”
The KSLV-II Nuri three-stage rocket, designed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) to place 1.5-ton payloads into orbit 600 to 800 km above Earth, is a cornerstone of the country’s ambitious goals for 6G networks, spy satellites and even lunar probes.
He uses only korean rocket technologies and it is the first space launch vehicle built in the country . South Korea’s latest booster, launched in 2013 after several delays and failed tests, was jointly developed with Russia.
President Yoon Suk-Yeol watched the launch from his office and thanked everyone involved. Suk-Yeol was briefed by Jong-ho and others about the mission’s success, claiming to keep an election promise to create a new agency to take charge of space affairs, according to an office statement from him.
“Now the road to space from our earth has been opened up,” said Suk-Yeol. “It was the product of 30 years of daunting challenges. From now on, the dreams and hopes of our people and our youth will extend into space.”
In Nuri’s first test in October, the rocket completed its flight sequences but failed to get the payload into orbit after its third-stage engine burned out earlier than planned.
Engineers tweaked the helium tank inside Nuri’s third-stage oxidizing tank to solve this problem, Yonhap news agency reported.
KARI said it plans at least four more test launches by 2027. Nuri is key to South Korean plans to eventually build a Korean satellite navigation system and 6G communications network. The country also plans to launch a series of military satellites, but officials deny that Nuri has any use as a weapon.
South Korea is also working with the United States on a lunar orbiter, and hopes to land a probe on the moon in 2030.
Following Tuesday’s successful launch, the US Embassy in Seoul said on Twitter that it is looking forward to US-South Korea cooperation in space.
Space launches have long been a sensitive issue on the Korean peninsula, where North Korea faces sanctions over its nuclear-armed ballistic missile program.
In March, the South Korean military separately oversaw what it said was its first successful launch of a solid-fuel space rocket, another part of its plans to launch spy satellites.
In recent years, South Korea and the United States have agreed to eliminate bilateral limits on Seoul’s missile and rocket development, paving the way for new civilian and military launches.
(Edited by William Maclean and Bradley Perrett)
Source: CNN Brasil
