Naro put into place today, to launch on Wednesday.

* Update: Headline from the Korea Times: "Korean Rocket Set to Leap Into Space." Really? That's the verb you took?


From here.

From the Korea Herald:

Korea's first space rocket was set to be positioned on the launch pad yesterday ahead of its historic liftoff, which is scheduled for tomorrow.

Amid a slight drizzle, Naro, or the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, was moved about 1.5 kilometers to the launch pad from the assembly complex at the Naro Space Center, the country's first spaceport in Goheung, South Jeolla Province.

The two-stage rocket, which will carry a 100-kilogram experimental satellite into a low earth orbit, is set to be launched between 4:40 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. tomorrow.

I wonder if this will be a widely-watched television event on Wednesday. Words like "yesterday," "today," and "tomorrow" can be problematic in newspaper articles, especially when articles that will appear in the next day's print edition wind up on the internet the evening before. The "between 4:40 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. tomorrow" refes to Wednesday, on the assumption that Herald readers get the paper on Tuesday, though some readers will be seeing this on Monday.


From here.

The rocket was built with the help of Russian technology, though Korea plans to built one entirely on its own by 2017. According to this little interview with the head of the Naro Space Center in Goheung county, South Korea is limited by the United States in what types of rockets it can launch. According to the terms of a missile agreement between the two countries

there are articles that limit the development of space technology. There are no limitations on rockets using only liquid fuel. Nevertheless, the total weight of a rocket using solid fuel cannot exceed 1 million pounds. This translates into a very small amount of power that is only strong enough to put a satellite into orbit after the first stage of the rocket has been burned. In order to launch a real rocket we need a powerful solid fuel-based rocket.

And in response to the question why the US doesn't allow the development of solid-fuel-based rockets:

Since solid fuel can be stored inside a rocket, such missile types have been frequently used in military applications. In the case of liquid fuel rockets, if stored for too long, the fuel can erode the rocket structure itself. The technology related to solid fuel rockets is a direct road to Intercontinental Ballistic Missile technology and this is the part that the United States is concerned about.

*sigh* I think it's time the US stop acting like a babysitter. Another interesting part of that interview was regarding other "difficulties," these with the Russians:

There are 20 Russian security officials. Whenever there is a meeting they attend. The complex where the first-stage rocket is being assembled is like a Russian Embassy. You can’t get in without their permission because they are worried about the possibility of a leak.

Well, that fear isn't groundless, since the man originally chosen to be Korea's first astronaut actually did try to steal information from the Russians, though there are likely many other countries interested in such technology as well.


People from a 명상학교---meditation school?---in a village in Goheung's Podu-myeon paint a mural on the side of their building in the hopes of a successful launch.