South Korea failed to deliver a satellite into orbit on Thursday, crushing
its dream to become the 10th country in the world to reach the milestone
using its own technology.
President Moon Jae-in said that the three-stage Nuri rocket could not reach
orbit, although it flew as high as 700 km into space after all its three
stages separated successfully.
"I am sorry that we could not reach the goal completely, but it's still a
very excellent accomplishment," Moon said after the launch at the Naro Space
Center on South Korea's southernmost island of Oenarodo. "We have an
uncompleted mission to deliver a dummy satellite into orbit safely."
The Nuri rocket carrying a 1.5-ton dummy satellite was launched at 5 p.m.
from the center. Nuri was initially scheduled to launch at 4 p.m., but was
delayed by an hour for a technical issue in the launcher to be checked.
The failure will deal a blow to South Korea which has ambitions for an
independent space development plan, and had hoped it would boost the
country's private aerospace industry. The country spent 2 trillion won ($1.7
billion) to develop Nuri -- a project worked on by 250 researchers from the
Korea Aerospace Research Institute, the South Korean version of NASA.
On Tuesday, the presidential Blue House said the country aims to launch a
rocket to send a moon explorer by 2030, but it may take some more time to
make it come true.
As the launch turned out to be a failure, South Korea lost its chance to
become the 10th country capable of sending a satellite into orbit with its
own technology, and the seventh that can deliver a satellite weighing more
than 1 ton. The country launched its first space rocket in 2013, but that
was developed in cooperation with Russia.
Russia was the first country to reach the milestone, launching a space
rocket in 1958, followed by the U.S. the following year. Others include
Europe, China, Japan, India, Israel, Iran and North Korea.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said that more than 300 South Korean
companies participated in the Nuri project. They include key aerospace and
engineering companies such as Korea Aerospace Industries, Hanwha Aerospace
and Hyundai Heavy Industries. The government said that in future, private
companies will be given greater roles in developing rockets.
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