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Space

South Korea's First Rocket Fails To Reach Set Orbit 101

Posted by kdawson from the ground-control-to-major-tom dept.
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.'"
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South Korea's First Rocket Fails To Reach Set Orbit More

South Korea's First Rocket Fails To Reach Set Orbit

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  • to hide spy activities.
    Ooops, maybe I wasn't supposed to say that.

    • N.K (Score:5, Interesting)

      by DirtyCanuck ( 1529753 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @03:57PM (#29192541)

      âoeNorth Korea will surely try to use the South Korean launch to justify its own,â said Jeung Young-tae, an analyst at the government-financed Korea Institute for National Unification. âoeBut in the end, its attempt will be dismissed as propaganda because there are clear differences between the two.â

      Dismissed by who? The rest of world who already knows everything he says is loaded bull.

      Or the "citizens" of North Korea who are brainwashed into believing (or supporting) every word he says.

      The people of North Korea are so isolated he could say the Japanese were sending over Godzilla to justify an attack, and the outcome would be the same with regards to domestic support.

      • Re:N.K (Score:5, Informative)

        by MozeeToby ( 1163751 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @04:02PM (#29192629)

        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.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by ibsteve2u ( 1184603 )

          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...

          Or your family's food ration paperwork starts going missing a day here and there...far less expensive than maintaining prison camps.

        • Unfortunately the citizens of NK do tend to believe the things they are told by "dear leader." The interviews and contact that we have had with the North, which is incredibly limited, tend to indicate that, while they do not believe EVERYTHING, most of the principles stated by the NK propaganda machine are believed. It is a result of extreme isolation, poverty, and being bombarded with the message since birth. It comes from EVERY source. So while tactics like this did not work incredibly well in the Soviet

          • I don't think you understand just how bad the situation is in terms of the threat that hangs over their heads. I recently read one article about a woman who spent 15 years in a labor camp, essentially digging ditches and filling them back in. Not only that, but her children and her parents were also put into camps as well, several of them dying due to the horrible conditions in those camps. They saw people executed without trial for trying to escape, or for stealing for, or any number of other offenses t

            • I understand the threat. Of course any in any interview no one is going to speak against dear leader etc. I will also admit clearly that not everyone believes all the propaganda, and that not all the propaganda is believed by any one. What I am saying is that quite a bit of what is said is actually taken as fact, because they have no reason to believe otherwise, and nothing to contradict it. For instance, many believe that if it comes to war with the United States, that NK has the upper hand. Why would w
      • Can you shut the fuck up? It seems like you are the one who is being brainwashed here.
      • You're wrong. They're not just the Japanese. They're AT LEAST 'Japanese Reactionaries', but preferably 'Militarist Reactionary Confrontationist Japanese Ruling Forces', whose 'confrontational hysteria reveals their militarist disposition and ambition to swallow up the DPRK at any cost, without flinching even if they fail to do so [kcna.co.jp]'.

        Following the KCNA is great fun.
    • This shouldn't be marked troll. They certainly wouldn't be the first nation to claim failure to achieve a stable orbit, only to admit (much) later there's a satellite up there after all.
      • RTFS a little more closely. It doesn't say that the satellite didn't achieve a stable orbit, it says (as does TFA) that it didn't end up in the designated orbit. It may well be in a (reasonably) stable orbit, just not quite the one they wanted.

      • 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]

        • Leave it to korea to make something that doesn't completely work right. I'm looking at you, KIA Motors.

  • Oh! Oh! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Aphoxema ( 1088507 ) * on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @03:55PM (#29192505) Journal

    In Soviet Russia... ahh... I don't have anything. I best leave it to the professionals.

    • Re:Oh! Oh! (Score:5, Funny)

      by mooingyak ( 720677 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @04:01PM (#29192601)

      In Soviet Russia... ahh... I don't have anything. I best leave it to the professionals.
      ... the professionals leave it to you?

    • Re:Oh! Oh! (Score:4, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @04:02PM (#29192635)

      In Soviet Russia... ahh... I don't have anything. I best leave it to the professionals.

      In Korea, Soviet Russia jokes are only for old people.

      • In Soviet Russia... ahh... I don't have anything. I best leave it to the professionals.

        In Korea, Soviet Russia jokes are only for old people.

        That would sound so much cooler... IN JAPAN!

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by maiki ( 857449 )

          "kankoku de ha, sobieto roshia no jyooku ga rojin dake no mono da"

          I'm not a native speaker, but that doesn't sound quite so cool. But if you're interested in Soviet Russia jokes in Japanese, this [ansaikuropedia.org] is invaluable. It even has some C code to make Hello World into a Soviet Russia joke.

    • Re:Oh! Oh! (Score:5, Funny)

      by forkazoo ( 138186 ) <wrosecrans@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @04:30PM (#29193013) Homepage

      In Soviet Russia... ahh... I don't have anything. I best leave it to the professionals.

      In South Korea, people launch rockets into space.
      In Russia, rockets launch people into space.

      But, I'm sure South Korea will eventually also develop man-rated space equipment. It'll just take time while they refine the launching capacity.

  • However (Score:5, Interesting)

    by geekoid ( 135745 ) <{moc.oohay} {ta} {dnaltropnidad}> on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @03:58PM (#29192559) Homepage Journal

    it went far enough to remind N.Korea that S.Korea has rockets.

  • The first sentence written by Matt_dk failed to pass spell checker...

  • he the the? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jeng ( 926980 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @04:07PM (#29192683)

    I'm not a grammar nazi, but please. Misspelling the very first word in the summary? I could see if it was some complex word, but its THE, what next, is someone going to misspell A ?

    the the New York Times? It shouldn't be too hard for the mods to do a basic proofread of the summary before posting. Not that correcting the mistakes changes the content, but because correcting the mistakes doesn't change the content.

  • Call me a fan, but I've been watching with great interest in the new space-bound projects. Lots of folks (/. and elsewhere) tore up privately-funded programs such as Space-X when they have had mishaps, but this is a clear reminder "this space stuff" isn't exactly trivial.

    Speaking of Space-X, looks like they've actually been doing quite well, getting things reliably up in the air and on schedule. I can't wait for the day they (or anyone else in the private sector) can provide reliable human transport!

  • 300mi South of Seoul? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by pete-classic ( 75983 ) <hutnick@gmail.com> on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @04:14PM (#29192787) Homepage Journal

    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.

    -Peter

    • It's actually quite useful. While I doubt most people even know where Seoul is, it's a convenient marker. Sure, they could have said, "About 70 miles southeast of Gwanju." but I highly doubt that would've been any more useful.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by SlashDotDotDot ( 1356809 )

      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.

      • "The /. editors were too lazy to catch it."

        What editors?

        Seriously. Leave the typos in place. The submitter should be held fully accountable for their own mistakes. The effort expended on the part of the writer is one of the ways I determine the amount of weight I give what they write. If the writer cannot be bothered to proofread, then maybe I shouldn't bother to read it to begin with.

        As far as the first letter missing from the summary, if it was a cut/paste error on the part of the /. admins (as I suspect

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by jbudofsky ( 1279064 )
      Actually I think it is useful. The target audience for this article isn't necessarily familiar with Korean geography. If you were writing an article aimed at Koreans and you said Houston, which is near Hillshire Village, TX most of them would say "Where?" You have to choose recognizable landmarks even if they aren't the absolute closest place. I bet most Americans would have the same reaction.

      • Re:300mi South of Seoul? (Score:4, Informative)

        by pete-classic ( 75983 ) <hutnick@gmail.com> on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @05:30PM (#29193773) Homepage Journal

        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

        • 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!

          True enough. Alas, most Americans don't know where Nagasaki is, other than "somewhere in Japan".

          Seriously, Seoul is a good base position for anything in Korea (300 miles away? Hell, the State Capital is farther off for some of us)

        • Wait, where is this "South Korea" you keep on talking about?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Hadlock ( 143607 )

        I think "island off the southern coast of Korea" would be more descriptive. I imagined Seoul to be more to the SW than it is. As an American born well before the Korean or Veitnam wars, the fact that I can place Seoul as being an asian country (really, it doesn't sound asian) other than the fact that they mention it in the TV show M*A*S*H a bunch of times is rather impressive. Most people just associate S. Korea as the place where DVD players and Kias are born before being shipped to their house.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Rudolf ( 43885 )

          the fact that I can place Seoul as being an asian country ... is rather impressive.
          I'm not impressed. Seoul is not an asian country. Or any country at all. It's a city in South Korea.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @04:33PM (#29193059)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)

      by Chris Burke ( 6130 )

      So if I were the South Koreans, I'd be fairly pissed right now. Although this is only a first attempt; anything space-related is bloody hard, and you've got to expect failures on brand new, untested hardware.

      Since you used the British term "bloody", I'm going to assume that in the first sentence there you meant that the South Koreans should be moderately drunk. In which case I can only say that if I were the South Koreans, I'd be extremely pissed. And that has nothing to do with rockets.

      • I assume you're British, in which case you should know that over here pissed means a multitude of things, one of which means angry - clearly the intended meaning here.

        Just because he's British doesn't mean he has to exclusively use the British alternative, my good sirs!

        • I assume you're British, in which case you should know that over here pissed means a multitude of things, one of which means angry - clearly the intended meaning here.

          I'm not British (though I love the word "bloody") though it's true I knew that, but it was funnier if it was "pissed as in drunk". :)

          Just because he's British doesn't mean he has to exclusively use the British alternative, my good sirs!

          Nonsense. Didn't the UN just pass a resolution about that? If not they should have.

    • Re:Success?? (Score:4, Funny)

      by SleazyRidr ( 1563649 ) on Tuesday August 25, 2009 @05:08PM (#29193491)
      It's a total success. The summary says that the satellite is 22 miles higher than it's supposed to be. They're just being conservative, and allowing some room if it falls a bit.

    • "(Although I'm not sure if I was the only one who saw the launch video, and saw the first stage pitch suddenly before clearing the tower and then pitch in the opposite direction. Didn't look good...)"

      I agree. I seem to recall a similar looking launch (Russian?) that ended up in fuel and debris raining back onto the launch facilities resulting in the deaths of many on the ground.

      When I started watching the video my first thought was "Uh oh", but guidance managed to correct the pitch changes.

      Forgive me if I'm

  • I don't always make a bunch of basic spelling mistakes in my submissions to Slashdot, but when I do, I drink Dos Equis.

  • Does this mean that the satellite will enter orbit but with an undesired geometry or will it achieve splashdown far earlier than expected? I suppose that there's another alternative that both amuses and appalls me: that South Korea just fired off millions of dollars of taxpayer money into deep space. I mean, they could have achieved the same result by wrapping up 100 kg of cash in duct tape and fire it into Jupiter, right below the sign that says "put litter in it's place" with a Neptune sized arrow that

  • Difference between a rocket and missle test? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    What is the difference between a rocket and missile test?

    Depends on whether it is done below or above the 38th Parallel.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by tin_wood_man ( 1625023 )
      Satellites are launched with rockets. Missles blow stuff up.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by oatworm ( 969674 )
      Projectile dysfunction disorder. Basically, does it stay up? If so, it's a rocket test. If it doesn't, it's a missile test.
    • Actually if anyone has bought into the world economy, it's south korea. And they know very well you can't make it happen without peace (with everyone who can fight back).
  • Maybe they outsourced the launch like NASA is proposing to do.
  • They should have had it built by Hundyai and made it look like a Genesis coupe

  • 22 miles further out? Hell, that's not a problem. Give it a while and the orbit will decay, right? Of course it might not be geostationary, which means it might not end up exactly where they want it. Or it might die of old age before the orbit decays enough.

    No engines on the satellite to make orbital adjustments? Tch, cheapskateskis!

    Now if it were 22 miles LOW ... I'd worry.

    Toad

  • Goodness knows America and the Russians/Soviets had our share of staggering failures in our respective space programs, and launching something into orbit should be well within the capabilities of the South Koreans.

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