South Korea Fails Again in Rocket Launch
Photo: AP
South Korea has failed in its second attempt to join the elite league of nations able, from home soil, to launch a rocket into space and place a satellite into orbit.
Spectators along a southern coastal beach and millions more South Koreans television viewers watched Thursday's blast-off of the 33-meter-long two-stage launch vehicle, the Naro-1.
Atop the 140-ton rocket, a research satellite whose successful deployment would achieve history. But 137 seconds after it departed the launch pad, communications with the rocket were lost.
Ground controllers saw an unexpected flash on their monitors. Officials say the rocket may have exploded during the ascent.
Education, Science and Technology Minister Ahn Byong-man lamented this latest failure.
The minister says it is regrettable that the mission again did not live up to people's expectations and this is a humbling lesson. He adds the country will keep trying.
There was an attempt last August to deploy a similar satellite, the size of a washing machine, designed to measure radiation energy in the atmosphere. But the satellite did not release from the rocket after shields protecting it failed to retract.
North Korea has previously claimed to have launched its own satellites. But international space watchers say there is no evidence Pyonygang's missile technology, illegal under U.N. sanctions, has successfully deployed a payload.
In Tokyo, aerospace consultant Lance Gatling says national space programs remain expensive and difficult, a half century after the initial forays by the Soviet Union and United States.
"The development does, in fact, cost a tremendous amount of money. It's one of the harder things that a group of people can get together to do - to actually launch a large mass into orbit and to put it where you need it and not blow it up," said Gatling.
South Korea hopes to eventually take part in the $250 billion global space-services market. Its indigenous program is a collaboration among 160 South Korean companies, with rocket technology partly designed by Russia.
Real size replica of  (left)

South Korea has lost contact with its Naro-1 rocket, just 137 seconds after take-off. Officials believe the rocket exploded.

 (KARI) and  had hoped to use a , South Korea's first carrier rocket, to launch a  satellite.

South Korea had postponed the launch on Wednesday due to problems with the rocket's fire extinguisher system. Science Ministry spokesman Pyun Kyung-bum said, "We expect that it will be difficult to launch today".

The rocket lifted off from Goheung's  at 1701 (0801 GMT) today.  The rocket apparently exploded 137 seconds after launch, when a flash was seen from an on-board camera and communication was lost.  The loss of communication occurred when the rocket had achieved an altitude of around . Television cameras captured a white speck, presumably part of the rocket, falling into the sea.

Analysts say the failure is a setback for South Korea. If it had been successful, it would have been the first Naro-1 launch to reach orbit. The launch cost South Korea an estimated US$400 million, and if successful, would have launched a satellite called the  into orbit.  The satellite was designed to examine climate change and its effects.

The incident is seen as a major setback for South Korea's space program, which had been aiming to become the 10th country to achieve the capability to launch satellites, and the fourth Asian country, after China, Japan, and India.  A successful launch would have helped South Korea to become a player in commercial space launches, an industry valued at around US$250 billion.

Since 1992, South Korea has launched 11 satellites from overseas sites with foreign-made rockets.