South Korea's First Rocket Fails To Reach Set Orbit 101
Matt_dk writes "The first satellite launched by South Korea failed to reach its designated orbit pattern on Tuesday, the NY Times is reporting. The two-staged KSLV-1 rocket, built in cooperation with Russia, failed to deliver the 100-kilogram oceanic and atmospheric research satellite into its target orbit. The rocket was launched from the Naro Space Center, 300 miles south of the capital Seoul. 'The failure to push the satellite into its intended orbit was announced by Ahn Myong-man, the minister of education, science and technology, at a news conference. Mr. Ahn gave no further details. But South Korean news outlets, citing unidentified sources, said the satellite broke away from the rocket about 22 miles farther from the Earth than had been intended.'"
Re:N.K (Score:5, Informative)
Or the "citizens" of North Korea who are brainwashed into believing (or supporting) every word he says.
Give the citizens of North Korea some credit, it isn't really being brainwashed if there's a very real chance of you being sentenced to a few decades hard labor for saying the slightest negative thing about the government.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:300mi South of Seoul? (Score:3, Informative)
WTF? Naro and Seoul are damn near the two widest flung points in the R.o.K. This is a bit like describing NASA's Houston control facility as "1200 miles South West of Washington D.C." It's correct, but not particularly useful.
It was a typo. They meant
the Naro Space Center, located at http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Naro+Space+Center&ll=34.520136,127.644653&z=9 [google.com]
but it came out
the Naro Space Center, 300 miles south of the capital Seoul.
The /. editors were too lazy to catch it.
Re:300mi South of Seoul? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:300mi South of Seoul? (Score:4, Informative)
But someone who isn't familiar with Korean geography gains nothing from this description. They might have well said, "It's in the same country as Seoul." given the relative locations of the two points of interest. In fact that might have been less likely to lead someone to the wrong conclusions, given that calling out Seoul implies that it's the nearest point of interest.
I might have said, "On the South West coast of South Korea." instead.
In fact, I just realized that Nagasaki, Japan, which I think is reasonably well known in the US, is closer to the Naro Space Center than Seoul is!
-Peter
Re:Sometimes they just say th(but maybe it's true) (Score:2, Informative)
South Korea bumbled its way into the Asian space race Tuesday...It seems that the KSLV-1 first stage, developed by the experienced Russians, worked perfectly. However, the rocket's Korean-made second stage, which was supposed to carry and push the satellite into its place, apparently had some issues.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2009/08/129_50676.html [koreatimes.co.kr]
In a video session disclosed only to a limited number of reporters Wednesday, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), the country's space agency, revealed footage taken from two built-in cameras planted on the KSLV-1 second stage...The second-stage tumbled back to Earth, and the satellite soon followed, as the remaining fairing was heavy enough to prevent the rocket from achieving desired speed and pushing the satellite to a speed faster than 8 kilometers per second that was required for the spacecraft to remain in orbit,'' Park Jeong-joo, who heads KARI's KSLV systems unit, said.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/tech/2009/08/129_50747.html [koreatimes.co.kr]
Russian officials cited by "Interfax" are claiming the vehicle failed during second stage flight.
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2009/08/south-korea-launch-of-kslv-1/ [nasaspaceflight.com]