North Korea`s rocket launch on Sunday indicated the country`s capacity to fire a long-range missile, making many wonder where South Korea stands in terms of rocket technology.
The first stage of the North Korean Eunha-2 rocket dropped about 280 kilometers off the western coast of Akita, Japan, into the East Sea. The second and third stages are estimated to have flown at least 3,100 kilometers from the Musudan-ri launch pad on the North`s northeastern coast before falling into the Pacific Ocean.
South Korea`s Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, which is slated to carry an experimental satellite into orbit in late July, is expected to have a much shorter range of 2,750 kilometers. The KSLV-1 rocket is being jointly developed by Russia`s Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.
Experts say the South lags behind the North in rocket technology as it has yet to develop the engine on its own, but is way ahead in satellite development.
The South has so far developed and put six satellites into orbit mostly for scientific research purposes, whereas little has been confirmed about the North`s satellite development.
The North`s state-run Korean Central News Agency declared on Sunday its experimental communications satellite Gwangmyungseong-2 reached outer space just a little more than nine minutes after launch and was orbiting the Earth.
But the U.S. military said no object entered orbit and "the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean."
The Gwangmyungseong-2 is seen likely to be of a rudimentary level carrying not much more than a radio wave transmitter.
The communist country has proven to the international community, however, that it is on its way toward independently developing an intercontinental ballistic missile, 24 years after it began research using a Chinese liquid-fuel missile.
South Korea had previously planned to become the ninth country in the world to launch a home-made satellite from its own soil.
But the launch plan was delayed four times due to slow cooperation with Russia and a need for more time to check safety systems at the new spaceport. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said last month inspections at the Naro Space Center launch pad were more complicated than expected.
Iran beat South Korea by shooting the Omid satellite on board its self-developed Safir-2 launch vehicle in February.
KARI recently completed building and testing its launch pad system. It is currently preparing to run final tests using mock-up rockets or ground test vehicles. The experimental GTVs are used to test fuel injection and to check whether the engine, machinery and electronics systems work properly.
"Once the tests, which take about two months, are completed, we will begin assembly of the actual rocket," said Min Kyung-joo, chief of the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province.
"The actual first-stage rocket will be delivered from Russia around early June."
The chances of succeeding in the first launch are slim, said Lee Mun-ki, a director general at the Science Ministry.
"The first launch is more likely to fail, considering the space development procedures of other countries and our level of experience," Lee said.
The two-stage KSLV-1 weighs 140 tons, measures 33 meters in length and three meters in diameter. The first stage is being developed by Russia and the second by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. It will have a thrust of 170 tons.
It is assumed that the North`s three-stage Eunha-2 weighs more than 70 tons, measures 32 meters in length and 2.4 meters in diameter.
By Kim So-hyun
(sophie@heraldm.com)
[출처 : 코리아헤럴드]
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