hankyoreh

South Korea’s dreams of space development are fast becoming a reality.

On Jan. 30, the satellite on top of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle 1 (KSLV 1) rocket, known as the “Naro,” successfully reached its target orbit. This comes twenty years after the country‘s first single-stage solid-fuel rocket in 1993, and over ten years after it launched a 13-metric-ton-thrust liquid-fuel rocket 42.7 kilometers into the sky in 2002. It also comes seven years after the Roh Moo-hyun administration resumed rocket development with Russia after a 2002 halt by the Kim Dae-jung administration. South Korea has now gone from a “space user” operating satellites to a “space developer” possessing its own launch vehicle. We congratulate and applaud the South Korean scientists and engineers who worked so hard on research and development over the years.

Space technology has long since passed from the realm of dreams into reality. Its practical uses have grown exponentially: navigation systems, mobile communication, weather observation, disaster monitoring, resource exploration. If we consider that around of one satellite per year would have to be launched from 2020 to maintain the ones we are currently operating, our development of a launch vehicle will have a tremendous impact in terms of import substitution and promoting related industries. Indeed, communications satellites are one of the growth engines for the next generation, with a per-ton price of US$8.74 million, compared to US$20,000 for a car.

But the success of the Naro also means that we are passing the intermediate stage in terms of space development. For the first-stage rocket that served as the major launch vehicle, Russia provided a finished version of its newly developed Angara. We originally had a technology collaboration agreement with transfer conditions, but Russia changed things after a controversy erupted over alleged violations of the Missile Technology Control Regime. South Korea can take full credit for perfecting the Korean-model launch vehicle, and it gained a great deal in terms of technology over the course of its independent R&D efforts and its trials and errors with the Naro. This will be a crucial underpinning as we complete development on the KSLV 2, which has been under way separately since 2010.

Judging from how things have gone to date, we can expect to encounter many hurdles, and not just because the performance target of the KSLV 2 is much more ambitious than the Naro’s rocket, the KSVL 1. Realistically, we need that much thrust to get a practical satellite into orbit. A bigger problem is excessive interference by administrators and politicians, as we saw with the Naro‘s development. Things like the political muddle over whether or not to develop technology independently, the rotating cast of managers, and outside pressures on research staff need to become things of the past. They are the reason we have been hearing so many calls to set up an independent body for this. We should also consider keeping the research and industry aspects separate in the interests of efficiency. The role of politics in this process is to provide support, nothing more.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]