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Delayed launch of space rocket could come late this month

Delayed launch of space rocket could come late this month

Posted January. 10, 2013 03:00,   

한국어

The delayed launch of the Korean space rocket Naro-1 could come as early as the end of this month. The previous attempt was stopped 16 minutes and 52 seconds before the lift-off schedule on Nov. 29 last year.

The Education, Science and Technology Ministry and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute on Tuesday said the launch schedule will be set by the Naro launch management committee next week.

A source at the institute said, “We will discuss the schedule with Russian scientists at next week`s meeting. They are on vacation now and will return to Korea this weekend.” The launch could come as early as the end of the month and as late as early next month because so far, the date has been scheduled more than 10 days after the committee’s meeting.

The aerospace institute replaced the electrical box of the electric motor pump in the rocket`s upper part of the rocket, which was the cause of the launch delay. A institute source said, “A simple defect in the electrical box caused the problem last time. Burning coils caused power surges. We confirmed that everything worked as normal last week after replacing the electrical box in the upper rocket.”

The institute will finish assembly of the upper part this week and the Russian scientists will assemble the lower part next week.



kyoutae@donga.com