South Korea launched its first domestically-designed space rocket on Tuesday, TV footage shows, months after an initial launch failed in October.
The Korea Satellite Launch Vehicle II, a 200-ton liquid-fueled rocket, called Nuri, lifted off from the Goheung launch site at 4 p.m. local time (0700 GMT), with a commentator saying, “it looks like everything is going according to plan. “.
This second test comes eight months after the failure of the first launch during which the rocket failed to send its dummy payload into orbit, which was a setback for Seoul.
All three stages of the rocket had operated, bringing it to an altitude of 700 kilometers, and the 1.5 ton payload had successfully separated.
But she had failed to put a dummy satellite into orbit, the engine of the third stage having stopped working earlier than expected.
“Nuri separates the dummy satellite,” South Korean television YTN reported on Tuesday minutes after liftoff, saying shortly after that the launch “appears to be a success.”
During Tuesday’s test, besides the dummy satellite, Nuri carried a rocket performance verification satellite and four satellites developed by four local universities for research purposes.
It took about ten years to develop this rocket, at a cost of 2000 billion won (1.46 billion euros). With its six liquid fuel engines, it weighs 200 tonnes and is 47.2 meters long.
South Korea is the 12th largest economy in the world and one of the most technologically advanced countries, notably with its flagship, the Samsung Electronics group, the largest manufacturer of smartphones and chips in the world.
But it has always lagged behind in the conquest of space, where the Soviet Union led the way with the launch of the first satellite in 1957, closely followed by the United States. In Asia, China, Japan and India have developed advanced space programs.