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South Korea's aerospace agency suspended the launch of its first space rocket due to a technical glitch - Source: Reuters
South Korea aborted the launch of its first space rocket about
eight minutes before its scheduled lift-off due to a technical
glitch, delaying a move that has threatened to rile neighbouring
North Korea.
Officials believe a problem with one of the tanks may have
triggered an automatic abort system and said fuel had been removed
from the booster rocket, indicating at least several days are
needed to prepare it again for launch.
The launch was expected to rile prickly North Korea, which was hit
by UN sanctions after its fired off a long-range rocket in April in
what was widely seen as a disguised missile test.
Pyongyang, which chastised the world body for the punishment, said
earlier this month it was paying close attention to the South's
rocket.
The countdown was halted by the automated launch system and
engineers would be sifting through data to look for the cause of
the glitch, a space agency official said.
"There was loss of pressure in the high-pressure tank that operates
the launch vehicle valves," Lee Sang-mok, a science ministry
official overseeing the project, told a news briefing.
South Korea, which has relied on other countries to launch its
satellites, had planned to send a domestically built scientific
satellite into orbit on the rocket called the Korea Space Launch
Vehicle-1, which is also known as Naro-1.
The Naro-1 is 33 metres long and the two-stage rocket was built at
a cost of 502.5 billion Won ($593 million).
Russia built the first-stage booster and had provided technical
support to the South.
The rocket was placed back on a support pad at the South's space
centre, located about 350 km south of Seoul.
An expert at the Korea Aerospace University, Chang Young-keun, said
glitches of this type were not uncommon and they could range from a
simple software bug to major hardware issues.
"As for the setbacks, Korea is in the position of learning from
Russia because they are the leading authorities in this kind of
launch," he said.
"To be precise, this is a delay."
South Korea wants to build a rocket on its own by 2018 and send a
probe to monitor the moon by 2025.
It also wants to develop a commercial service to launch
satellites.
But its nascent space programme lags far behind Japan, China,
India, and to some extent North Korea.
Seoul is betting that a successful launch will give it the
technical prowess to catch up quickly with its rivals.
South Korea's space agency has tried to play down expectations for
the launch, saying in a report that only about 30% of countries'
first attempts to put a satellite into orbit succeed.
