SEOUL -- South Korea and Russia will test various hypotheses on why a jointly developed space rocket was lost during takeoff last month, the government said Monday.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Russian technicians at the second Failure Review Board (FRB) held in Moscow last week, forwarded several possibilities as to why the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) failed to reach orbit to deploy its 100-kilogram scientific satellite.
Russia built the main first stage rocket with South Korea tasked with the production of the smaller second stage rocket and satellite.
The KSLV-1 also called the Naro-1 blasted off from the country's southern coast at 5:01 p.m. on June 10, but all contact was lost at an altitude of about 70 kilometers.
The ministry, meanwhile, revealed that both sides agreed a powerful shock in the rocket occurred 136 seconds after liftoff that caused immediate communications failure.
Sometime after this, they concurred that the rocket was destroyed, although they didn't rule out the possibility of a second explosion. The conclusion was reached after South Korea and Russia cross-referenced information that was exchanged at the first FRB meeting held immediately after the rocket was lost.
"At present, local experts are carrying out detailed technical analysis to check claims made by their Russian partners," Yop Guk-hee, head of the ministry's space development division, said, without going into details.
He added that a third FRB meeting will be held in Daejeon 160 kilometers south of Seoul in August so scientists and engineers can further exchange views.
Seoul has spent 502.5 billion won (USD413.3 million) on the project since 2002, and said it will ask Russia for a third launch once the current investigations are concluded. The preconditions for a third launch are inherent in a previous agreement. The joint launch was mostly a scientific and meteorological effort.
SOURCE: Yonhap, additional research by Korea IT Times
