South Korea delays satellite launch
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's planned launch of a space satellite was delayed Wednesday due to a technical glitch and was likely to be postponed to another day, a government official said.
The two-stage Naro rocket was supposed to blast off carrying an observation satellite to study global warming and climate change.
The process was halted due to the malfunction of fire safety facilities at the launch pad, Science Ministry spokesman Pyun Kyung-bum said. South Korean and Russian experts were trying to find the cause of the problem and planned to consult on a new launch date, he said.
"We expect that it will be difficult to launch today," he said.
The first stage of the two-stage rocket was designed and built by Russia and the second by South Korea.
The snag came after officials had announced that launch preparations were complete and that the rocket would lift off at 5 p.m. local time (0800 GMT).
The planned liftoff at the coastal Naro space center in Goheung, about 290 miles (465 kilometers) south of Seoul, would have been the country's second launch of a rocket from its own territory in a less than year.
In the first attempt last August, the satellite failed to go into orbit because one of its two covers apparently failed to come off after liftoff. Since 1992, South Korea has launched 11 satellites from overseas sites, all on foreign-made rockets.
The launch preparations came amid heightened tension on the Korean peninsula after South Korea referred North Korea to the U.N. Security Council over the sinking of a navy ship that killed 46 South Korean sailors.
North Korea — which denies involvement in the sinking — has threatened to retaliate against South Korea for taking it to the U.N. body, saying the South's action will intensify military tension and could trigger a war on the divided peninsula.
There was no immediate North Korean reaction to the planned liftoff from rival South Korea. Last year, North Korea warned it would closely watch the international response to South Korea's launch after a North Korean launch drew a U.N. rebuke.
Pyongyang has developed a variety of missiles and launched a long-range rocket from a domestic launch site in April last year in defiance of international warnings.
Pyongyang said the rocket carried a satellite into orbit as part of a peaceful space development program, but the U.S. and its allies said nothing reached space and the launch was actually a test of the country's missile technology.
North Korea, unlike the South, is banned from any ballistic activity by U.N. Security Council resolutions as part of efforts to eliminate its nuclear and long-range missile programs.
The two Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-53 Korean conflict ended with a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.
The Science Ministry said South Korea plans to develop a space launch vehicle with its own technology by 2020.
China, Japan and India are Asia's current space powers. Japan has launched numerous satellites while China sent astronaut Yang Liwei into space in 2003 and carried out its first spacewalk in 2008.
India launched a satellite orbiting the moon in 2008, but had to abandon it nearly a year later after communication links snapped and scientists lost control of it.
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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.