South Korea is counting down to its first space launch on Wednesday that will likely open the door to its nascent rocket programme and rile neighbour North Korea, hit by United Nations sanctions after its own rocket launch in April.
South Korea, which has relied on other countries to launch its satellites, plans to send a domestically built satellite into orbit on its rocket Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, also known as Naro-1, from its space centre in the south of country.
The Naro-1 is 33m long and the two-stage rocket was built at a cost of $400-million, according to the South’s Yonhap news agency.
It is supposed to launch a 100kg satellite into orbit that will monitor the Earth’s radiant energy. Lift-off is planned for 07.40GMT on Wednesday at a site about 350km south of Seoul.
South Korea has relied on Russia’s help with the Naro-1, with its Khrunichev space production centre building the first stage, providing technical assistance and conducting tests.
”If we complete the development of the first-stage engine, we will then have the power to launch on our own. This is a tedious task though,” said Yoon Young-bin, an aerospace specialist at Seoul National University.
South Korea wants to build a rocket on its own by 2018 and send a probe to monitor the moon by 2025. It also wants to develop a commercial service to launch satellites.
But it lags far behind Japan, China, India, and to some extent North Korea, and is betting that after its first successful launch it can use its technical prowess to catch up quickly with its rivals.
South Korea’s space agency tried to play down expectations for the launch, saying in a report that only about 30% of countries’ first attempts to put a satellite into orbit succeed.
North Korea is watching
The South’s satellite launch serves as a point of pride and irritation for North Korea, which in April shot off a long-range rocket and was hit by UN punishment because the move was widely seen as a disguised missile test that violated UN resolutions.
North Korea, whose economy is about 2% the size of the South’s, has boasted about sending a satellite into orbit, circling the globe playing revolutionary songs, ahead of its richer southern neighbour.
US and South Korean officials have said nothing was put into orbit.
North Korea chastised the UN for punishing it for the April launch and a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said this month the state will be closely watching how the world body reacts to the South’s.
Apart from North Korea, few doubt the South’s launch will be anything but for its civilian space programme. But the launch does raise questions about implications for regional security.
South Korea has an agreement with its US military ally not to develop long-range missiles, which was reached to prevent an arms race in the economically vibrant North Asia region. — Reuters