Candidate to join the club of advanced space nations, South Korea experienced a semi-failure on Thursday, with the successful launch of its first nationally designed rocket, which however was unable to put its own rocket into orbit. payload, dummy for this first flight.
The launch and deployment of the three phases of the "Korean Satellite Launch Vehicle II" rocket worked, as did the payload separation, President Moon Jae-in said, but "the putting into orbit of a dummy satellite remains an unfinished mission ”.
A few minutes earlier, the rocket nicknamed "Nuri" had risen from Goheung's launch pad in a column of flames, before quickly reaching 600 kilometers in altitude, the beginning of its range.
To the resounding applause in the control center, the broadcasters had even announced the success of the deployment of the dummy satellite, before the president showered the hopes ... of an entire country.
A very ambitious program
In the National Assembly, in fact, the legislators interrupted their work to attend the launch, a true national event.
It took ten years to develop this rocket, at a cost of 2,000 billion won (1.46 billion euros), and a goal: to send a lunar orbiter next year, and to land on the Moon by 2030.
The world's 12th largest economy, one of the most technologically advanced countries, 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, and North Korea is the latest to join the club of countries capable of launching a satellite.
The South Korean space program shows a mixed record: its first two launches, in 2009 and 2010, which used Russian technology, were unsuccessful.
Eventually, the country successfully launched in 2013, still relying on engines developed in Russia.
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