The mostly Russian-made $405 million Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 was set to be launched from Naro Space Center in Goheung, about 300 miles south of the capital Seoul. However, the Yonhap News Agency reported the date has had to be reset between Aug. 19 and 26, and launching the satellite is becoming rather critical as the typhoon season is fast approaching. Yonhap quotes a deputy science minister at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology saying that the final date was reached “after checking likely weather conditions, close consultation between South Korean and Russian engineers and a review by a local launch preparation panel.”
The rocket’s liquid-fuelled first stage was built and tested at Russia’s Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center. The smaller second solid-fuelled stage was made in South Korea along with the satellite. The 140-ton rocket generates around 170 tons of thrust, according to Yonhap. The meteorological research satellite weighing 220 pounds was developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. If the launch is successful, South Korea will join Japan and China as the Asian countries to have placed a satellite independently into orbit. Around a dozen countries have done so since the Soviet Union put up the first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957. South Korean government officials have said they plan to launch a second rocket in April 2010. A third rocket would be launched if either of the two in orbit fails. Korea already has several of its own Korean-made satellites in orbit, but they have been carried aloft by Russian and American boosters on contract launches. The Arirang 1, named after a folk song, was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on a Taurus rocket in December 1999. The satellite was built in Daedeok Science Town in Daejeon, South Korea. Arirang 2 was launched in 2006, but last year the Korea Aerospace Research Institute said they had lost contact with the craft.
