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| Korea's space rocket Nuri is erected at the launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, May 23. Yonhap |
Korea decided to postpone the Wednesday's scheduled launch of its space rocket Nuri due to a technical glitch found during final preparations, the science ministry said.
"While controlling a helium valve, officials found out a communications problem between a launch control computer and a launch pad facility control computer," Vice Science Minister Oh Tae-seog said in a briefing held at the Naro Space Center in Goheung. "The valve is OK but the system might matter when it goes into the automatic operation system. So we inevitably cancel the scheduled launch."
Officials detected the problem around 3:30 p.m. just before they start injecting fuel and oxidizer into the rocket.
The launch management committee, which oversees the entire process, held a meeting on the issue and decided to delay the schedule.
The committee will determine whether Korea will go ahead with the launch on Thursday.
The 200-ton Nuri was set to blast off from the Naro Space Center in the country's southern coastal village of Goheung at around 6:24 p.m.
Earlier in the afternoon, the committee confirmed the launch time, considering the rocket's technical status, weather conditions and other possible aerial accidents.
Ten minutes before the launch, the prelaunch operation, or an automatic system that oversees the final preflight checkouts, will begin. If the computer detects any glitch, the launch process is automatically suspended, the ministry added.
In a Tuesday's meeting, the science ministry and KARI concluded Nuri's final technical inspection proceeded without any problems. The weather forecast also satisfied launch conditions.
A successful launch would verify Korea's capability to operate a space vehicle to carry payload satellites into target orbit.
This time, Nuri, also known as KSLV-II, is loaded with eight practical satellites that have their own respective missions in space, while a dummy satellite and a performance verification satellite to test the rocket's capabilities were onboard Nuri in its previous flight.
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| Officials hold a press conference on the scheduled launch of Korea's space rocket Nuri at a press room of the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, in this photo provided by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, May 24. Yonhap |
They are the country's second next-generation small satellite, the NEXTSAT-2, four microsatellites developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, codenamed SNIPE, the JAC by Korean engineering company Justek, the LUMIR-T1 by local space firm Lumir and the KSAT3U by startup Kairospace.
Nuri's third launch was made possible by the success of the second attempt in June last year.
As Nuri finished its flight sequences and sent the dummy satellite into its target orbit as planned, Korea became the seventh country in the world to have developed a space launch vehicle that can carry a more than 1-ton satellite, after Russia, the United States, France, China, Japan and India.
The country has secured the key independent technology for developing and launching space rockets carrying homegrown satellites, opening up a new era in the country's space program.
The 2 trillion-won ($1.52 billion) Nuri project that began in 2010 will continue until 2027, with three additional rocket launches. (Yonhap)
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