Space race: South Korea conducts maiden launch of first indigenous rocket

The three-stage rocket, emblazoned with South Korea’s flag and carrying a dummy satellite, blasted off at from a launch site in Goheung at 4pm (07:00 GMT) on Thursday, but failed to put its payload into orbit, according to President Moon Jae In.

The launch and all three stages of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle II worked, as did the payload separation, Moon said, but “putting a dummy satellite into orbit remains an unfinished mission”.

Informally called NURI, which means “world”, the rocket weighs 200 tonnes, is 47.2 metres (155 feet) long, and is fitted with a total of six liquid-fuelled engines.

It is designed to put 1.5-tonne payloads into orbit 600km to 800km (373 miles-497 miles) above the Earth and has been 10 years in development at a cost of 2 trillion won ($1.6bn).

South Korea has risen to become the world’s 12th-largest economy and a technologically advanced nation but has lagged in the headline-making world of spaceflight, where the Soviet Union led the way with the first satellite launch in 1957, closely followed by the United States.

China, Japan and India all have advanced space programmes, and the South’s nuclear-armed neighbour North Korea put a 300-kg (660-pound) satellite into orbit in 2012 in what Western countries condemned as a disguised missile test.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES