The three-stage rocket, more than 47 meters (154 feet) long and weighing 200 tons, was launched from the Naro Space Center in the southern coastal region of the country at 4 p.m., local time.
It was completed with five satellites that will carry out Earth observation missions, such as monitoring the atmosphere, for a maximum of two years, as well as a simulated satellite of 1.3 tons, according to the Ministry of Science of the country.
“South Korea’s road to space has now opened,” President Yoon Suk Yeol said after the launch. “It is the result of the difficult challenges of the last 30 years. Now, our Korean people and the dream and hope of our young people will come to space.”
Prior to the South Korean mission on Tuesday, only Russia, the United States, the European Union, China, Japan, and India had developed a spacecraft capable of carrying a 1-ton satellite. , according to the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). ).
South Korea tried to launch a simulated satellite with the Nuri rocket for the first time last October. The attempt failed when the engine of the third stage of the rocket was shut down and the simulated satellite did not reach low Earth orbit.
Growing space industry
South Korea has struggled to keep up with its Asian neighbors in the space race.
Its first two rocket launchers in 2009 and 2010 used engines developed by Russia, and both did not reach orbit. In 2013, South Korea finally managed to send a carrier rocket into low Earth orbit, but this was also developed with Russian technology.
Since 2010, South Korea has invested nearly 2 trillion Korean won (about $ 1.5 billion) in the construction of the three-stage Nuri, which means “world” in Korean. Nuri is the first rocket in the country to use its own technology, and opens the door to a series of future satellites and missions.
A total of 300 South Korean companies were involved in rocket development, according to KARI.
KARI chief Ahn Sang-il has previously said that the success of the rocket would allow South Korea more autonomy in its space program.
“In the past, cube satellites were launched with rockets in other countries, but from that launch, we will have the opportunity to load Korean-made cube satellites into a rocket also made in Korea,” he said. say at a press conference in April. “We can launch our satellites according to our own needs and at the right time for us from that launch.”
Following last year’s failed attempt, then-President Moon Jae-in said South Korea planned to launch the rocket five more times in 2027.
The country has other space projects underway: its first lunar orbiter, developed in collaboration with NASA, is expected to be launched in August next year. It will orbit the moon for about a year, marking South Korea’s first mission to travel beyond Earth’s orbit.