The world is struggling to cultivate the aerospace industry, but Korea is stuck with obstacles such as lack of governance, technological limitations, inexperienced ecosystems, and the disappearance of vision.
Experts pointed out that in relation to fostering the aerospace industry, “not only from the perspective of science, but from the perspective of national management, a long-term and comprehensive fostering policy should be established.”
Long-term and consistent policies are essential to successfully foster the aerospace industry. This is because it is an industry in which enormous capital is invested, and it takes a long time to develop related technologies. This is the reason why countries that have recently entered the aerospace competition are competitively establishing integrated governance such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). According to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, 16 countries around the world, including Australia and Luxembourg, have established space stations over the past five years. Major G7 countries such as the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan all have space stations, but only Korea is not.
The skill level is regressing. According to the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)’s Technology Level Assessment Report, assuming that the US’s leading technology in the aerospace sector is 100, Korea’s technology level is 68.8% in 2014, 67.5% in 2016, and 2018. It was found that it is lagging behind by 60.0%. Even in the technology gap group, which is divided into’leader’,’chase,’ and’later’ according to the level of technology, it belonged to the’chase’ group in 2014 and 2016, but fell into the’later’ group in 2018.
In addition to urban aviation mobility (UAM), which is the initial stage of the industry, poor infrastructure, such as rocket combustion test sites, is a factor that hinders the growth of the civil aerospace industry ecosystem. In Korea, it is difficult to obtain a test site for launch vehicles, and most of them are tied to environmental conservation areas such as green belts and national parks. In the case of a re-landing test in progress by SpaceX, airspace permits are not granted for altitudes above 3 km in Korea.
Domestic start-ups are pressed by a number of regulations that are applied when testing launch vehicles. Due to various regulations such as the Building Act, Urban Planning Act, Natural Park Act, Air Conservation Act, Aviation Safety Act, and Space Development Promotion Act, the time it takes for a private startup to test a launch vehicle is 3 years.
Professor Chang-jin Lee of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Konkuk University emphasized that “the development of the aerospace field must be approached from a comprehensive perspective, such as defense, security, and economics,” and emphasized that “even now, we must set a long-term goal for 10 to 20 years and establish a consistent fostering policy.” .
[특별취재팀 = 이진우 부국장 / 이새봄 팀장 / 원호섭 기자 / 안갑성 기자 / 김희래 기자 / 이상은 MBN 기자]
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