[ad_1]
Seoul, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s first domestically produced space rocket reached the desired altitude, but failed to deliver an artificial payload to orbit during its first test launch on Thursday.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in described the test as an “excellent achievement” that still takes the country one step further in its quest for a space launch program.
Live footage showed the 47-metre (154-foot) rocket levitating on a small island off the country’s south coast with bright yellow flames emanating from its engines following the explosion at the Naro Space Center, the country’s only spaceport.
After launch, the country’s space agency, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, reported that Nuri’s first and second stages were properly separated, and the third stage carried the payload – a 1.5-ton block of stainless steel and aluminum – 700 kilometers (435 miles). above the world. But Moon, who observed the launch at the Naro spaceport, said in a televised speech that the payload did not stabilize in orbit after leaving the third stage.
KARI and the country’s Ministry of Science officials did not immediately provide further details on what went wrong.
The launch, which took place at 5 pm (0800 GMT), was delayed by an hour as engineers needed more time to inspect the rocket’s valves. There were also concerns that strong winds and other conditions would create difficulties for a successful launch.
“Although (Launch) did not achieve its objectives perfectly, it was an excellent success for the first launch,” Moon said.
“The airborne engine ignitions and separation of the rockets, the coatings (covering the payload) and the dummy satellite worked smoothly. All of this was done with a technology that belongs entirely to us.”
South Korea, which has relied on other countries to launch its satellites since the early 1990s, is now trying to be the 10th country to send satellites into space with its own technology.
Officials say such capability would be crucial to space targets, including the country’s plans to send more advanced communications satellites and acquire its own military intelligence satellites. The country also hopes to send a probe to the moon by 2030.
Nuri is the country’s first space launch vehicle built entirely with domestic technology. The three-stage rocket is powered by five 75-ton class rocket engines mounted on its first and second stages.
The scientists and engineers at KARI plan to test Nuri several more times, including making another launch with a mock device in May 2022, before trying it with a real satellite.
South Korea had previously launched a space launch vehicle, essentially a two-stage rocket built with Russian technology, from the Naro spaceport in 2013. This launch came after years of delays and consecutive failures. The rocket, named Naro, reached the desired altitude in its first test in 2009, but failed to launch a satellite into orbit and exploded in its second test in 2010, shortly after takeoff.
It was unclear how North Korea would react to Thursday’s launch, which has been accused in recent years of using space launch attempts as a mask to develop long-range missile technology.
While the North has pushed to expand its nuclear and missile program, it has been sensitive to South Korea’s increased defense spending and efforts to build missiles with more powerful conventional weapons.
In a speech to the Pyongyang parliament last month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un accused the US and South Korea of ”destabilizing and destabilizing” the region through their allied military activities and US-led “excessive weapons buildup”. in the south.
While Nuri is powered by liquid propellants that must be refueled shortly before launch, the South Koreans plan to develop a solid-fuel space launch rocket that could be cheaper to build and ready to launch faster by 2024. Such rockets would also be ideal for more sensitive space launches, including those involving military intelligence satellites.
South Korea’s space ambitions have received a boost in recent years as the Trump and Biden administrations took steps to ease decades of US restrictions that limited Seoul’s missile development and eventually allowed its ally to produce conventional weapons with unlimited range and warhead weight. . While the US has eased its so-called missile guidelines, it has also lifted a limit on how powerful solid-fuel rockets South Korea can build for space launch purposes.
South Korea currently does not have its own military surveillance satellite, meaning it relies on US spy satellites to monitor North Korea. Officials have expressed hopes of launching domestically developed, low-orbit military surveillance satellites using the country’s own solid-fuel rockets in the next few years.
[ad_2]
Source link