South Korea To Attempt Second Space Launch In 2010

South Korea will put together a plan to attempt the second firing of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), its first locally developed space rocket, local media on Monday quoted a report to President Lee Myung-bak as saying.Initially described as a "half success" by local officials and engineers, KSLV-1 is currently under examination by the South Korean government to find the cause behind its failure to launch properly in its first attempt on Aug. 25, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said in the report.

The report also said its engineers are taking all possible measures to ascertain a successful second launch scheduled for the first half of 2010.The two-stage rocket, also called Naro-1, is the country's first space vehicle to be launched from South Korean soil that could possibly place a 100 kg scientific satellite into Earth's orbit.

Following the successful launch of KSLV-1, developed in cooperation with Russia, South Korea will work on the construction of KSLV-2, a rocket developed without requiring any outside assistance, the report said.KSLV-1 successfully launched itself from the Naro Space Center south of Seoul on Aug. 25, but the satellite failed to gain enough orbital velocity causing it to crash back to Earth shortly after take off.

Posted in: South Korea