South Korea test-fires first solid-fuel space rocket
REUTERS
South Korea’s military said it successfully test-fired a solid-fuel space rocket for the first time in late March 2022, a step it said will help it eventually launch a constellation of satellites to better monitor threats such as North Korea.
The launch was the first such test since South Korea and the United States agreed in 2021 to end decades of restrictions on the South’s ballistic missile and rocket development, and it came less than a week after North Korea conducted its highest missile test yet.
“The success of the test launch of this solid-propelled space launch vehicle is an important milestone in strengthening the defense power of our military’s independent space-based surveillance and reconnaissance field at a very critical time,” the South Korean Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, citing North Korea’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile a week before.
Then-South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook observed the launch of the rocket, which was developed with “pure Korean technology,” the statement said.
In June 2022, South Korea conducted its first successful satellite launch using a domestically developed rocket, officials said,.
The three-stage Nuri rocket placed a functioning satellite, designed to verify the rocket’s performance, at a target altitude of 700 kilometers after its liftoff from South Korea’s Naro Space Center, the Science Ministry said.
In contrast to the Nuri’s liquid-fuel design, a solid-fuel rocket such as the one tested March 30, 2022, would be simpler, less expensive to develop and manufacture, and faster to launch, the Defense Ministry said.
The March test verified the large solid-fuel engine, fairing separation, stage separation and upper-stage attitude control technology, which are essential technologies for space launch vehicles, the statement added.
The Defense Ministry said it plans to use the rocket to put a small satellite or a number of ultra-small satellites into low Earth orbit and to later transfer some technology to the private sector to help revitalize the domestic space industry.
