Naro space rocket launch reset for mid-Nov.

Naro space rocket

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said Monday that it will make its third attempt to launch the Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV-1), colloquially called Naro, sometime between Nov. 9 and 24 following Friday’s cancellation.

It opened a launch review committee with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology and decided that it will not proceed within the current launch window of Oct. 26 to 31.

It will file applications to International Civil Aviation Organization and International Maritime Organization to get a green light for the new window. KARI wants to launch the rocket between 4 p.m. and 6:55 p.m.

The KSLV-1 was supposed to blast off between 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Friday but the countdown was halted during preparations when Russian engineers responsible for the first stage found a helium leak at 10:10 a.m. The rocket was then moved to the assembly complex for inspection.

Engineers found a rubber seal, manufactured in Russia, was damaged. KARI said they have replaced it and conducted tests, and found no new damage or leaking. The Russian engineers agreed with the institute that the problem was minor, but nonetheless decided to send the broken seal to Moscow to precisely determine the cause of the damage.

KSLV-1 is a cooperative project between Korea and Russia, with the former responsible for the second stage booster and payload package — a 100-kilogram satellite — and the latter the first stage and the LOX and kerosene engine.

The third launch is widely anticipated as two previous launches failed: the first in 2009 failed to release the satellite into orbit, while in the second in 2010 the rocket exploded 137 seconds after liftoff.

Both incidents caused controversy of who was responsible for the failure, but KARI said that it had worked with its Russian partners and all problems had been solved.

The government and the institute are planning a bigger rocket, the KSLV-2, which will be launched sometime around 2021, regardless of the success of the upcoming third launch. <The Korea Times/Cho Mu-hyun>