In 2009, South Korea halted the launch of KSLV-1 rocket just before lift-of. In 2010, the country once more tried to launch that rocket, but failed again. But that will not happen all the time. Finally, South Korea has successfully launched that KSLV-1 rocket into the space on Jan 30, but not alone; carrying a satellite.

South Korea desperately wanted to deploy a space rocket from its own soil. So, the country tried twice to send a space rocket called Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSVL-1), also known as Naro, in 2009 and 2010; but unfortunately failed both time. But the country didn’t lose its hope. South Korea started to work with new enthusiasm and for the first time, the country launched that KSVL-1 space rocket on Wednesday, Jan 30, along with a small Science and Technology Satellite 2C (STSAT-2C) into orbit. The KSVL-1 or Naro blasted off at 4 pm (local time) from the Naro Space Center, which is located 480 kilometers away from South of Seoul. About an hour after takeoff, Science Minister Lee Ju-ho declared the successful launch of that rocket.

South Korea has spent 502.5 billion Won ($407 million) since 2002 to build that rocket and learnt related technologies with Russian assistance and technical supervision. At present, Korea Aerospace Research Institute is working with contractors to build completely in-house rocket stages by 2016, and reach 300 tons of thrust by 2018.

Till now, there were 10 countries who built their own rocket and 12 nation who had successfully deployed a rocket into space from their own territory with a satellite. With the launch of KSVL-1 rocket with STSAT-2C satellite, South Korea has become the 11th country to build a native rocket and the 13th nation to put a rocket into space from own territory.

Source: Yonhap News Agency
Thanks To: Space, Wall Street Journal

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