Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea plans to test its first domestically produced space launch vehicle next week, a major step toward jumpstarting the country’s space programme and achieving ambitious goals in 6G networks, spy satellites, and even lunar probes.

The three-stage NURI rocket designed by Korea Aerospace Research Institute to carry 1.5-ton payloads 600-800km above Earth’s surface, and a dummy satellite will be launched into space Thursday.

South Korea’s last such booster, launched in 2013 after multiple delays and several failed tests, was jointly developed with Russia.

Han Sang-yeop is director of KARI’s Launcher Reliability Safety Quality Assurance Division.

In an email, he stated that a country’s own launch vehicle provides flexibility for payload types as well as a launch schedule.

MILITARY & CIVILIAN BENEFITS

It also gives the country more control over “confidential payloads” it may want to send into orbit, Han said.

That will be important for South Korea’s plans to launch surveillance satellites into orbit, in what national security officials have called a constellation of “unblinking eyes” to monitor North Korea.

South Korea’s dependence on America for intelligence satellites on its northern neighbor has been almost complete.

In 2020 a Falcon 9 rocket from the U.S. firm Space X carried South Korea’s first dedicated military communications satellite into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

NURI is also crucial to South Korean plans for a Korean satellite-based navigation and 6G communications system.

“The program is designed not only to support government projects, but also commercial activity,” Oh Seung-hyub, director of the Launcher Propulsion System Development Division, told a briefing on Tuesday.

South Korea has been working with the United States to build a lunar orbiter and plans to launch a probe onto the moon in 2030.

TRIAL LAUNCH

Han said that previous failures have led to them having to prepare for the worst.

The launch day may be changed at the last minute if weather or technical problems arise; the craft will carry a self-destruct mechanism to destroy it if it appears it won’t reach orbit; and media won’t be allowed to observe the test directly.

Before the rocket can be trusted enough to transport a payload, at least four tests will need to take place.

According to pre-launch briefing slides, the rocket’s planned path will take it southeast from its launch site on the south coast of the Korean peninsula, threading its way over the ocean on a trajectory aimed at avoiding flying over Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, and other major land masses.

Han said to Reuters that the launch of the upcoming Korean rocketry launch could be remembered for its historical achievement, regardless of whether it is successful.

SENSITIVE TECHNOLOGY

Space rockets on the Korean peninsula have been fraught with concerns over their potential use for military purposes, leaving South Korea’s efforts lagging more capable programmes in China and Japan.

“Modern rocketry in Korea couldn’t devote its capability much in R&D of rockets because of long-standing political issues,” Han said.

The United States has viewed North Korea’s own satellite launch vehicles as testbeds for nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile technology. An American-North Korean agreement was broken after a North Korean satellite launch occurred in 2012.

“North Korea, of course, will not look favourably on South Korea’s rapidly advancing space capabilities, which are far more technologically advanced than those possessed by the North,” said James Clay Moltz, a space systems expert at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School.

South Korea’s push into space comes as it speeds ahead with its own military ballistic missile systems after agreeing with the United States this year to end all bilateral restrictions on them.

Chang Young-keun from the Korea Aerospace University, a missile expert said that “there is no concern about military applications in NURI Launch Vehicle development.” Unlike the liquid-fuelled NURI, South Korea’s military missiles use solid fuel, which is better for weapons, he added.

South Korea isn’t considered a threat by Russia or China so its presence in their space program, already militarized and highly militarized seems unlikely.

“Many space launch technologies are inherently dual-use,” he said, but noted that he hopes NURI’s development will “not lead to an arms race in space, but instead a safer ‘information race’” where South Korea has better intelligence to head off any future crisis.