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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, in this photo provided by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Yonhap |
Korea on Tuesday positioned its homegrown space rocket Nuri on the launch pad at the Naro Space Center, a day ahead of its liftoff to send multiple satellites into orbit.
Nuri, also known as KSLV-II, reached the launch pad about an hour and a half after it left an assembly building at 7:20 a.m. and was erected at the launch pad at the space center in the southern coastal village of Goheung, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).
They said officials will undergo prelaunch checks in the afternoon and wrap up the process around 7 p.m.
The science ministry and KARI will hold a launch management committee meeting later in the day to decide whether to proceed with Wednesday's scheduled launch.
The liftoff ― Nuri's third launch ― is likely to take place at 6:24 p.m. Wednesday, but the time could change, the ministry said.
In June last year, Korea successfully launched the space rocket Nuri in its second attempt to put satellites into orbit, reaching a major milestone in the country's space program.
Korea has become the seventh country in the world to develop a space launch vehicle that can carry a more than 1-ton satellite, after Russia, the United States, France, China, Japan and India.
In 2021, Nuri successfully flew to its target altitude of 700 kilometers but failed to put a dummy satellite into orbit, as its third-stage engine burned out earlier than expected.
On Wednesday, Nuri will perform a mission to launch practical satellites into orbit and will carry eight satellites, including the country's second next-generation small satellite and four microsatellites developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, codenamed SNIPE.
It is the first time that Nuri is tasked with handling separate multiple satellites in one flight.
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| Korea's space rocket Nuri arrives at the launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, May 23, in this photo provided by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Yonhap |
Korea has invested nearly 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in building Nuri since 2010. The project was carried out with domestically made technology on its own soil, including the design, production, testing and launch operation.
The country plans to conduct three additional Nuri rocket launches by 2027 as part of efforts to further advance the country's space rocket program. (Yonhap)
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