From spy satellites to mobile phone networks, Seoul hopes a new rocket will launch a space program

Burr Josh Smith

floodOctober 15 – South Korea plans to test its first domestically produced space launch vehicle next week, a major step toward launching its domestic space program and achieving its ambitious goals of 6G networks, spy satellites and even lunar probes.

If all goes well, rocket My light Three phases, designed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KASRI).curryTo eventually put 1.5-ton payloads into orbit 600 to 800 km above Earth, it will take an imaginary satellite into space on Thursday.

The last missile of its kind for South Korea, which was launched in 2013 after several delays and many failed tests, was developed jointly with Russia.

the new KSLV-II My light The missile has exclusively Korean missile technologies, and is the first space launch vehicle to be built in the country, said Han Sang-yeop, director of the Operator Reliability, Safety and Quality Assurance Department. curry.

“Having its own launch vehicle gives the country flexibility in payload types and launch schedule,” he told Reuters in an email.

Benefitsarmy And civil

That gives the country more control over what “secret payloads” it might want to send into orbit, Han said.

That will be significant to South Korea’s plans to put surveillance satellites into orbit, in what national security officials have described as a constellation of “unobliterated eyes” to monitor North Korea.

So far, South Korea has relied almost entirely on the United States for satellite intelligence about its northern neighbor.

In 2020, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket put South Korea’s first military communications satellite into orbit from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

My light It is also key to South Korea’s plans to build a Korean satellite navigation system and 6G communications network.

“The program is designed not only to support government projects, but also for commercial activity,” Oh Seung-hyeop, director of the payment systems development division at Launcher, said at a press briefing Tuesday.

South Korea is working with the United States on a spacecraft around the moon and hopes to land a probe on the moon by 2030.