Delayed Technology from Russia Slows Completion of South Korean Space Center
SEOUL, June 5, 2007 - Satnews Daily - Completion of South Korea’s $323 million Naro Space Center on an island 485 kilometers south of Seoul is being held back by delays in the transfer of Russian technology.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), South Korea’s equivalent of NASA, said construction of the space center is about 95 percent complete with only the launch pad needing to be built. Naro will also house a main control center, a radar tracking station and rocket assembly and booster test facilities.
The technology to build the launch pad and the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), the country’s first launch vehicle, however, is being held back by Russia’s inability to approve the necessary transfer of technology.
The launch pad, which will be built according to Russian plans, will enable launches of 33 meter tall rockets with a diameter of three meters. Russia also provides other technology needed to complete the space center.
The Russian Duma or Parliament has not passed the Technology Safeguard Agreement agreed upon by Seoul and Moscow in October 2006. South Korea's parliament ratified the accord in December last year. The two countries also signed a space technology cooperation pact in September 2004 that led to Russian participation in South Korea’s space program.
Lee Hyo-keun, chief of the center's operations department, said if the Duma ratifies the agreement, South Korea will be able to finish the assembly and preliminary tests and all other systems checks by October 2008. He noted that the tracking radars, telemetry and optical systems are already in place and are being field-tested. A second tracking station on Jeju Island has also been built and plans are being finalized to use a specially-equipped Korean navy ship to track launches from the East China Sea.
"Once the facility is fully operational, South 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.
South Korea plans to launch KSLV-1, which is being built with Russian help, and an experimental satellite in December 2008 to become the 13th country in the world to launch a rocket into space on its own. Lee said if the KSLV-1 is launched as scheduled, South Korea plans to start development of KSLV-2 that is to be built exclusively with its own technology.
South Korea has so far orbited 10 scientific, communications and multipurpose satellites. The latest, Arirang-2, was launched in July 2006. South Korea's Ministry of Science and Technology has promised to make the country one of the top 10 space powers by 2015.
Located at the foot of Machi Mountain on Oe Naro Island, the center is a 500 million square meter complex. Naro will conduct test operations by the first half of this year with the installation of its $283 million rocket operation system. With Naro operational, Korea will become the 13th nation to own a rocket launch station, and the site will be the 26th in the world.
KARI is preparing for the first launch of KSLV-1) at Naro. KSLV-1 was originally scheduled to loft the Science Technology Satellite-2 (STSAT-2) into orbit by the end of this year. The launch of KSLV-1, however, was postponed to 2008 because of delays in the launcher's development program.
KARI said satellite development programs such as Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite-3 (Kompsat-3), Kompsat-5 and the Communication Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS-1) will go ahead as planned. South Korea aims to launch a 1.5 ton multi-purpose satellite by 2015.
