Wednesday 22 June 2022 12:20 PM South Korea successfully launches its first homegrown Nuri space rocket into ... trends now
South Korea has successfully launched its first satellites into orbit, an historic step in its space programme as it aims to land a probe on the moon by 2030.
It brings the country closer to its dream of becoming a new player in the space industry, having been late to enter the race because of a Cold War-era agreement with the US which prohibited it developing a space programme.
The three-stage Nuri rocket, built by the government's Korea Aerospace Research Institute together with hundreds of local companies, blasted off at 16:00 local time (08:00 BST) on Tuesday.
It was launched from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, about 310 miles (500km) south of Seoul.
Seventy minutes after the liftoff, South Korea announced that Nuri had successfully launched a 357-pound working satellite into orbit 435 miles above Earth.
The rocket also fired a 1.3-tonne dummy satellite and four small cube satellites developed by universities for research into space.
Liftoff: South Korea has successfully launched its first satellites into orbit, an historic step in its space programme as it aims to land a probe on the moon by 2030
It brings the country closer to its dream of becoming a new player in the space industry, having been late to enter the race because of a Cold War-era agreement with the US which prohibited it developing a space programme
A previous attempt to launch a dummy satellite into space failed in October 2021.
'South Korea's science and technology took a great step forward today,' said Lee Jong-ho, the government's science and technology minister, announcing the mission's success during a nationally televised news conference.
'We have laid the foundation for launching our own satellites when we want to, no longer having to depend on other countries' rockets and launch stations.'
He added: 'The sky of the Korean universe is now wide open.'
Nuri uses only Korean rocket technologies and is the country's first domestically built space launch vehicle.
South Korea's last booster, launched in 2013 after multiple delays and several failed tests, was jointly developed with Russia.
President Yoon Suk-yeol watched the launch from his office and thanked everyone involved as he was briefed by Lee and others about the success, vowing to keep an election pledge to create a new agency to take charge of space affairs, according to a statement by his office.
'Now the road to space from our land has been opened,' Yoon said.
'It was the product of 30 years of daunting challenges. From now on, the dreams and hopes of our people and our youth will extend into space.'
The country's space ambitions include
