The three-stage rocket, more than 47 meters long and weighing 200 tons, was launched at 4 p.m. local time from the Naro Space Center in the country’s southern coastal region.
It was topped with five satellites that will carry out Earth observation missions such as monitoring the atmosphere for up to two years, as well as a 1.3-ton dummy satellite, according to the country’s science ministry.
“The path from South Korea to space is now open,” President Yoon Suk Yeol said after the launch. “It is the fruit of the difficult challenges of the past 30 years. Now the dream and hope of our Korean people and our young people will reach out into space.”
Before South Korea’s mission on Tuesday, only Russia, the United States, the European Union, China, Japan and India had developed a launch vehicle capable of carrying a satellite weighing more than a ton, according to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
South Korea tried for the first time last October to launch a dummy satellite with the Nuri rocket. The attempt failed when the rocket’s third-stage engine shut down and the dummy satellite failed to reach low Earth orbit.
Emerging space industry
South Korea is struggling to keep up with its Asian neighbors in the space race.
Its first two launch vehicles, in 2009 and 2010, used Russian-developed engines. and both failed to reach orbit. In 2013, South Korea finally managed to send a launch vehicle into low-Earth orbit — but that, too, was developed using Russian technology.
Since 2010, South Korea has invested almost 2 trillion Korean won (about 1.5 billion US dollars) in the construction of the three-tiered Nuri – which means “world” in Korean. Nuri is the country’s first rocket to use its own technology, opening the door to a range of future satellites and missions.
According to KARI, a total of 300 South Korean companies were involved in developing the missile.
KARI chief Ahn Sang-il previously said the rocket’s success would allow South Korea more autonomy in its space program.
“In the past, cube satellites with rockets have been launched in other countries, but from this launch we have the opportunity to load Korean-made cube satellites into a Korean-made rocket,” he told a news conference in April. “From this launch, we can launch our satellites according to our own needs and at the right time for us.”
After the failed attempt last year, then-President Moon Jae-in said South Korea plans to launch the rocket five more times by 2027.
The country has other space projects in the works: the first lunar orbiter, developed in collaboration with NASA, is scheduled to launch next August. It will orbit the moon for about a year and is the first South Korean mission to go beyond Earth orbit.