South Korea gears up for launch of its Nuri space rocket
Seoul, 23 (EFE).- South Korea prepares for the launch of its first home-grown space rocket Nuri, which on Wednesday is expected to take satellites into orbit.
Nuri, also known as KSLV-II, on Tuesday underwent final technical checks at the Naro space center in Goheung village, about 350 kilometers south of Seoul, prior to its scheduled launch, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
The launch is scheduled to take place at 18:24 local time (9:24 GMT) if everything goes as planned. The ministry said there was a possibility of a change in the lift-off time.
Nuri successfully completed its first flight sequence into orbit in 2021, but failed to deploy a dummy satellite in orbit, because of a third-stage engine failure.
In June last year, Nuri completed its second flight and successfully deployed a more than one ton simulated satellite in orbit, making South Korea the seventh country in the world to achieve such a milestone along with Russia, the United States, France, Japan, China and India.
On Wednesday’s mission, Nuri is to carry eight satellites into orbit, including the second next-generation small satellite and four microsatellites, developed by Korea’s Astronomy and Space Science Institute.
Since 2010, South Korea has invested almost $1.8 billion on the development, design, and testing of its own-manufactured Nuri spacecraft.
In order to commercialize this technology and launch satellites for other countries, Korea has planned to launch three more Nuri rockets into orbit by 2027. EFE
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