[Global Times Special Correspondent in South Korea Liu Haisheng, Global Times Reporter Fan Wei]With the successful launch of the South Korean “World” carrier rocket on the 21st, the South Korean media was jubilant. The Chosun Ilbo of South Korea proudly declared, “This successful launch proves that South Korea is the seventh aerospace power in the world capable of launching practical satellites.”
“The sky in South Korea suddenly opened up”
Yonhap News Agency reported on June 21 that South Korea’s first self-developed carrier rocket, “World“, took off at the Luo Lao Space Center in Gao County, Jeollanam-do, South Korea at 4 pm that day. After flying for about 13 minutes, the rocket lifted 180 kg. The main payload of the PVSAT satellite, as well as the simulated payload and four “CubeSat” satellites were sent into a predetermined sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometers. The launch mission was a success.
South Korea’s “Chosun Ilbo” said on the 21st that there were nine countries or organizations in the world with independent satellite launch capabilities: Russia, the United States, the European Union, China, Japan, India, Israel, Iran, and North Korea. Among them, only the first six are capable of launching practical satellites weighing more than 1 ton into space. Israel, Iran and North Korea can only launch satellites weighing less than 300 kilograms into space. With the complete success of the launch of the “World“, South Korea has also become the seventh spacefaring country in the world to launch a practical satellite into space.
At the press conference announcing the success of the “World” launch mission, Lee Jong-ho, Minister of Science, Technology, Information and Communications of South Korea, said, “Today has ushered in a milestone moment in the field of South Korea’s science and technology field and history. Great progress has been made.”
Before this success, South Korea’s spaceflight road was tortuous. South Korea originally purchased the “Rao” rocket assembled with Russian technology, which failed to launch twice in succession until the last one. Since then, South Korea has shifted its focus to self-developed rockets. At 4:00 pm on October 21, 2021, when the “purely domestically produced” “World” made its first attempt to launch into orbit, due to the early shutdown of the three-stage engine, it failed to send the 1.5-ton simulated load into the predetermined orbit. The launch encountered a failure.
Subsequently, the Korea Aeronautics and Astronautics Research Institute formed an investigation committee and finally confirmed that the cause of the accident was “unreasonable structural design of the rocket”. After improvements, the “World” was sent back to the launch pad, but its second launch was twice delayed due to abnormal data in the liquid oxygen tank and strong winds.
How is the performance of the “World“?
Regarding this major breakthrough made by South Korea in the aerospace field, Huang Zhicheng, a Chinese aerodynamicist and aerospace technology expert, said in an interview with a reporter from the Global Times on the 21st that the successful launch of the “World” can be said to be a national effort. , using dozens of enterprises and spending a lot of money.
According to the parameters announced by the Korea Aeronautics and Astronautics Research Institute, the “World” is a three-stage liquid carrier rocket with a total length of about 46.5 meters. It has four 75-ton KRE-75 liquid oxygen and kerosene engines in parallel in the first stage and one in the second stage. The 75-ton KRE-075 engine, the third stage is a 7-ton KRE-007 engine, which can send a 1.5-ton load into a low-Earth orbit of 600-800 kilometers. Huang Zhicheng said that the overall technical capability of the “World” rocket is not strong. For example, the specific impulse of the KRE-75 liquid oxygen kerosene engine used in its first-stage rocket is not very high, only 298 seconds in a vacuum environment and 261.7 seconds at sea level, which limits the overall performance of the rocket. The “World” rocket has a low-Earth orbit carrying capacity of 2.6 tons and a sun-synchronous orbit carrying capacity of 1.5 tons. Huang Zhicheng believes that the overall performance of the “World” rocket is better than that of the Long March 1 rocket that launched my country’s first artificial satellite, but lower than the level of the Long March 2 carrier rocket. At present, both Chinese rockets have been retired. “The capacity of commercial rockets developed by some private aerospace companies in China is also slightly better than that of the ‘World‘ rocket, such as Galaxy Power’s Pallas-1 rocket and Blue Arrow Aerospace’s Suzaku-2 rocket, both of which have the same capacity as the ‘World‘ rocket. above.”
South Korean rocket takes aim at moon next
South Korea’s Newsis News Agency said on the 21st that the successful launch of the “World” shows that South Korea has all the “industry-university-research” capabilities of space launch. The Korea Aeronautics and Astronautics Research Institute is responsible for the development of the core technology of the “World” rocket and the construction of the launch site and other infrastructure. A large number of Korean heavyweights have participated in the development of the core components and subsystems of the rocket, and the assembly of the launch vehicle.
South Korea’s “Asian Economy” said on the 21st that after the successful launch of the liquid-fueled “World“, the South Korean military will conduct a solid-fuel rocket test, hoping to synchronously promote the launch of reconnaissance satellites, missile technology advancement and space exploration and other multiple purposes. After the United States lifted the ban on the range of South Korean missiles in May 2021, the South Korean military immediately began to develop solid-fuel-propelled rockets for launching reconnaissance satellites. The preparation time for North Korea to launch a liquid-fuel ballistic missile is about an hour, while the preparation time for South Korea to launch a solid-fuel ballistic missile is only 20 to 30 minutes. In the future, after all South Korean reconnaissance satellites are in place, they can monitor sensitive areas such as North Korean missile positions at intervals of 10-20 minutes, and the early warning and countermeasure capabilities will be greatly increased.
“The ‘World‘ has made South Korea a space power, and it is getting closer and closer to South Korea’s landing on the moon in 2031.” South Korea’s “Daily Economy” reported excitedly on the 21st that South Korea’s new-generation launch vehicle will have a 1.8-ton lunar orbit. capability, and is ready to send a rover to the moon in 2031.
Related Links:Demystifying the Korea Space Center
The Naro Space Center is the only space launch site in South Korea. It is located in the Naro Islands in Heung-gun, Jeollanam-do, South Korea. It is currently managed and operated by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. South Korea’s earliest decision to build its own space launch site was after South Korea passed the “National Space Development Medium and Long-Term Plan (1996-2015)”. At that time, taking into account the flight trajectory and the area where the rocket debris might fall after separation, launching rockets in the direction of China and Japan was first ruled out. After being judged by experts, Daejeong-eup, Seogwipo City, Jeju Island scored the highest. However, due to the strong opposition of the local government and residents at the time, the final candidate for the construction site of the Korea Space Center was Ra Lao Island, Gaeng County, Jeollanam-do.
The Korea Space Center started construction in August 2003. It was actually built through technical cooperation with Russia at the beginning. It covers an area of 5.06 million square meters and has a total investment of 265 billion won. It was finally completed in June 2009 and named as Luo Lao space center.
At present, the Luo-Lao Space Center can not only carry out rocket launches, but also build various aerospace infrastructures such as engine experimental equipment and satellite laboratory buildings, launch assembly buildings, solid-state engine buildings, launch control centers, and optical equipment buildings. Luo Lao Space Center has both popular science and sightseeing functions. The Global Times reporter once visited the Luo-Lao Space Center. The first time they entered the space center is the Space Science Museum and the affiliated square. Here, you can increase your understanding of aerospace knowledge, and you can also see the introduction of the Luo-Lao Space Center. In April 2011, 4D imaging equipment was also built here, attracting tens of thousands of tourists every year. The Luo-Lao Space Center Square at the entrance of the Space Science Museum is a certain distance from the rocket launch pad, and because of a small hill, the rocket launch cannot be directly seen. But before each rocket launch, the Korean media will set up a photo studio in the central square, where news anchors will give briefings, analysis and comments. Previously, the Luo Lao Space Center had a large number of Russian experts, but now with the strengthening of South Korea’s independent research and development efforts, Russian experts are relatively rare.Return to Sohu, see more
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