Korea's Space Program to Blast Off as Space Center Nears Completion

Korean Information Service, Korea's ambitious space program is expected to receive a critical boost as the country's first space center nears completion, the center's chief said Monday (June 4). 
 
The country is building Naro Space Center on 4.95 million square meters of land on Naro Island in Goheung, about 485 kilometers south of Seoul. The 300-billion-won ($323 million) center, scheduled for completion in 2008, will have a launch pad that can be used to send four rockets a year into space, a main control center, a radar tracking station as well as rocket assembly and booster test facilities. 
 
“Construction work on the center that began in early 2003 is about 95 percent complete, and only the launch pad needs to be built,” said Min Kyung-ju, director of the center. 
 
“Once the facility is fully operational, Korea will be able to achieve its goal of building a satellite and rocket with local technology and launching it into space from its own launch center,” he said. 
 
Korea plans to launch a rocket, called the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), and an experimental satellite in December 2008, and become the 13th country in the world to launch a rocket into space on its own. 
 
So far, Korea has relied on foreign assistance to send satellites into orbit. It has sent 10 scientific, communications and multipurpose satellites into space. The latest, the Arirang 2, was sent into orbit in July 2006. 
 
But Korea faces a hurdle in the launch plan, as the Russian parliament has yet to approve the transfer of technology necessary for the rocket and the launch pad. 
 
The Russian Duma has not passed the Technology Safeguard Agreement that was agreed upon by Seoul and Moscow in October 2006. 
 
The two countries also signed a space technology cooperation pact in September 2004. Korea's parliament ratified the accord in December last year. 
 
Regarding the rocket launch date, Lee Hyo-keun, chief of the center's operations department, said if the Duma ratifies the agreement, Korea will be able to finish the assembly and preliminary tests as well as all other systems checks by October next year. 
 
“The tracking radars, telemetry and optical systems are already in place and being field tested,” he said. 
 
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), which organizes Korea's space program, has completed its second tracking station on Jeju Island and finalized plans to use a specially-equipped coast guard ship to track the rocket in the East China Sea, he said. 
 
The completion of the space center would help Korea enter the rocket launch business, as the launch pad is to be built according to Russian design specifics that enable launches of 33-meter rockets with a diameter of 3 meters, Lee said. 
 
“This means that Korea can be a commercial launcher of rockets that have the external dimensions of the KSLV-1,” he said. 
 
“It may even be possible for the Korean center to receive orders to launch Russian satellites in the future.” 
 
Lee said if the KSLV-1 is launched as scheduled, Korea plans to start development of the KSLV-2 that is to be built exclusively with its own technology. 
 
“No specific date can be given at present, but the new rocket will be the same size as the KSLV-1, so it can use the same launch pad,” he said. “If Korea can build the KSLV-2, it may be the eighth country in the world to build its own satellite and rocket and send them into space.” 
 
At present, only the United States, Russia, Japan, China, France, India and Israel have reached that level. Brazil is trying to do so as well. 
 
The KARI also said the Naro center will complement other key national efforts in space exploration. It plans to send the first Korean into space in April 2008 on board a rocket to be made jointly by Russia and Korea. 
 
Two astronaut candidates selected late last year are undergoing training in Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Government sources said the country's first astronaut will be chosen in August. 
 
The state-run institute says space exploration may become one of the country's high-value-added industries this century although it is not currently profitable.