SEOUL - South
Korea's ambitious space program is expected to
receive a critical boost as the country's first
space center nears completion.
The country
is building Naro Space Center on 4.95 million
square meters of land on Naro Island in Goheung,
about 485 kilometers south of Seoul. The 300
billion won (US$323 million) center, scheduled for
completion next year, will have a launch pad that
can be used to send four rockets a year into
space, a main
control center, a radar
tracking station, as well as rocket-assembly and
booster-test facilities.
"Construction
work on the center, which began in early 2003, is
about 95% complete, and only the launch pad needs
to be built," said Min Kyung-ju, director of the
center.
"Once the facility is fully
operational, South Korea will be able to achieve
its goal of building a satellite and rocket with
local technology and launching it into space from
its own launch center," he said.
South
Korea plans to launch a rocket, called the Korea
Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), and an
experimental satellite in December, and become the
13th country in the world to launch a rocket into
space on its own.
So far, South Korea has
relied on foreign assistance to send satellites
into orbit. It has sent 10 scientific,
communications and multipurpose satellites into
space. The latest, the Arirang 2, was put into
orbit last July.
But South Korea faces a
hurdle in the launch plan, as the Russian Duma
(parliament) has yet to approve the transfer of
technology necessary for the rocket and the launch
pad.
The Duma has not passed the
Technology Safeguard Agreement that was agreed on
by Seoul and Moscow in October.
The two
countries also signed a space-technology
cooperation pact in September 2004. South Korea's
Parliament ratified the accord last December.
Regarding the rocket launch date, Lee
Hyo-keun, chief of the center's operations
department, said that if the Duma ratifies the
agreement, South Korea will be able to finish the
assembly and preliminary tests, as well as all
other systems checks, by October next year.
"The tracking radars, telemetry and
optical systems are already in place and being
field-tested," he said.
The Korea
Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), which
organizes South Korea's space program, has
completed its second tracking station on Jeju
Island and finalized plans to use a specially
equipped coast guard ship to track the rocket in
the East China Sea, he said.
The
completion of the space center would help South
Korea enter the rocket-launch business, as the
launch pad is to be built according to Russian
design specifics that enable launches of 33-meter
rockets with a diameter of 3 meters, Lee said.
"This means that South Korea can be a
commercial launcher of rockets that have the
external dimensions of the KSLV-1," he said.
"It may even be possible for the South
Korean center to receive orders to launch Russian
satellites in the future."
Lee said that
if the KSLV-1 is launched as scheduled, South
Korea plans to start development of the KSLV-2,
which is to be built exclusively with its own
technology.
"No specific date can be given
at present, but the new rocket will be the same
size as the KSLV-1, so it can use the same launch
pad," he said. "If South Korea can build the
KSLV-2, it may be the eighth country in the world
to build its own satellite and rocket and send
them into space."
At present, only the
United States, Russia, Japan, China, France, India
and Israel have reached that level. Brazil is
trying to do so as well.
The KARI also
said the Naro center will complement other key
national efforts in space exploration. It plans to
send the first South Korean into space next April
on board a rocket to be made jointly by Russia and
South Korea.
Two astronaut candidates
selected late last year are undergoing training in
Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center. Korean
Government sources said the country's first
astronaut will be chosen in August.
The
state-run institute says space exploration may
become one of the country's high-value-added
industries this century, although it is not
currently profitable.
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