hankyoreh

South Jeolla

South Korea’s first space rocket Korea Space Launch Vehicle I (Naro) exploded shortly after takeoff at 5 p.m. on June 10.

“Communication between Naro and the control center ended 137.19 seconds after launch and the recordings by the video installed on the upper part of Naro-1 showed a flash of light,” said Ahn Byong-man, minister of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology during in a press conference at the Naro Space Center in South Jeolla Province. “Naro appeared to explode at an altitude of 70 kilometers, and the fragments from the rocket seemed to have landed in the open sea, south of Jeju Island and 470 kilometers from the space center.”

The Science Technology Satellite No. 2 is also assumed to have been lost alongside the Korea Space Launch Vehicle I (KSLV-I), as the blast took place before the satellite was separated from the rocket.

Ahn said South Korean and Russian experts met immediately after identifying the blast to analyze Naro‘s flight details.

“We will assemble investigation committee, according to our contract with Russia, in order to analyze the exact cause for the failure,” Ahn said. “The government will also announce the plan for Naro’s third launch as soon the results of the investigation come out.”

Many experts said that technical faults in NARO must directly have caused the explosion of NARO but some experts mentioned the government‘s enforcement could influence it. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) pushed ahead with the launch of NARO in spite of some earlier warning signs of unusual functioning.

KARI continued the launch after completely replacing parts in the fire extinguishing equipment, which had caused the delay of liftoff on June 9 instead of conducting a thorough investigation. Furthermore, officers and researchers had stayed up all night preparing, and as a result may have made careless mistakes due to exhaustion. For these reasons, some from within KARI have suggested that the government may have had a hidden reason it pushed for the immediate launch of NARO.