South Korean Rocket Explodes 137 Seconds Into Flight

By Nancy Atkinson - June 10, 2010 at 5:45 AM UTC | Space Exploration

A South Korean rocket carrying a climate observation satellite apparently exploded 137 seconds into its flight early Thursday. The two-stage Naro rocket operated normally during and after liftoff from the country's space center, Minister of Education, Science and Technology Ahn Byong-man said. But then communications with the rocket were lost.

This is the country's second major space setback in less than a year.

The blastoff at the coastal space center in Goheung, 290 miles south of Seoul, took place at 8:01 GMT, and was the country's second attempt to launch of a rocket from within their own borders.

In the first attempt last August,

the satellite failed to reach orbit because one of the fairings apparently failed to come off after liftoff despite the rocket launch itself being considered a success.

Today, contact was lost as the rocket reached an altitude of 70 kilometers (44 miles). The video from South Korean television doesn't show an explosion, but only appears to follow a white speck on its downward trajectory into the sea.

"We believe that the Naro rocket is likely to have exploded," Ahn Byong-man, Minister of Education, Science and Technology told reporters. "We are sorry for failing to live up to people's expectations."

He said South Korean and Russian experts were trying to find the cause of the problem. The first stage of the two-stage Naro rocket was designed and built by Russia and the second by South Korea.

Since 1992, South Korea has launched 11 satellites from overseas sites, all on foreign-made rockets. The country hopes to develop a space launch vehicle with its own technology by 2020.

Sources: NPR,

BBC

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com