South Korea’s space programme gets a huge boost with successful test launch of domestically developed rocket engine
- The engine, designed and built as part of a US$1.8 billion project, will be used to propel the country’s first domestically developed launch vehicle
South Korea on Wednesday successfully conducted a rocket engine test launch, paving the way for the development of its own space launch vehicle.
Video footage showed the single-stage rocket, propelled by a liquid fuel engine, lift off from the Naro Space Centre on the southern coast and surge into the sky, trailing yellow and blue flames.
This is a significant step forward in developing a launch vehicle with our own technology
“The test vehicle was successfully launched,” Vice Science Minister Lee Jin-gyu told journalists, adding that flight data showed the engine was functioning normally.
The rocket, weighing 52 tonnes and measuring 25.8 metres in length, was fitted with a single engine with 75-tonne thrust, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said.
The engine, designed and built as part of a US$1.8 billion project, will be used to propel the country’s first domestically developed three-stage launch vehicle – the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-2 (KSLV-2). Combustion lasted for 151 seconds, surpassing an initial goal of 140 seconds, bringing the vehicle to an altitude of 75 kilometres before the engine stopped.
But the rocket continued flying because of inertia, reaching a suborbital altitude of 209 kilometres, 319 seconds after lift-off.