South Korea's homegrown space rocket Nuri is erected for launch at Naro Space Center in Goheung, 328 kilometers south of Seoul, on May 25, 2023, in this photo provided by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
South Korea on Thursday launched its homegrown space rocket Nuri to put eight practical satellites into orbit, a critical mission for the country's space program, Yonhap reported.
The 200-ton Nuri, also known as KSLV-II, blasted off from Naro Space Center in the country's southern coastal village of Goheung at 6:24 p.m., according to the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
The rocket is expected to deploy satellites into orbit 550 kilometers above Earth 783 seconds, or about 13 minutes, after liftoff and finish its flight sequence in about 20 minutes if the launch goes as planned.
South Korea had planned to launch the three-stage rocket Wednesday, but a computer glitch in the helium tank forced the country to postpone the liftoff for one day.
In a meeting of Nuri's launch management committee earlier in the day, the science ministry and KARI decided to go ahead with the launch after solving the problem overnight.
They said no other technical problems have been detected, and the weather is favorable and all payload satellites are in good condition.
A successful launch would confirm South Korea's capability to operate a space vehicle to carry payload satellites into target orbit.
Nuri is loaded with eight practical satellites, including South Korea's second next-generation small satellite, the NEXTSAT-2, and four microsatellites developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute.
In 2022, Nuri sent a dummy satellite into its target orbit as planned, making South Korea the seventh country in the world to have developed a space launch vehicle that can carry a more than 1-ton satellite, after Russia, the United States, France, China, Japan and India.
South Korea has secured the key independent technology for developing and launching space rockets carrying homegrown satellites, opening up a new era in the country's space program.
The 2 trillion-won (US$1.52 billion) Nuri project that began in 2010 will continue until 2027, with three additional rocket launches.
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