The launch of the’Nuri,’ a Korean launch vehicle (rocket), which is being independently developed in Korea, has been postponed to October, eight months after February next year. On the surface, it is a position that the government has extended the preparation period in order to successfully launch the Nuri, by accepting the opinion of a dedicated evaluation group composed of private experts, but it is pointed out that it is like admitting that preparations for rocket development were insufficient. It is diagnosed that it is difficult to rule out the possibility that the lunar exploration schedule, which has been pushed back several times, will be delayed again.
On the 29th, the Ministry of Science and ICT held the 18th National Space Commission and announced that it has confirmed the status and future plans for the development of the Korean launch vehicle and the Geostationary Public Complex Communication Satellite Development Project Plan. According to the revised plan, the Nuri will be launched for the first time in October next year, which is eight months later than originally scheduled. The timing of the second launch was also delayed to May 2022, 7 months behind next October. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, the delay in the development of the first stage of the rocket is the biggest cause of the delay. The Nuri is a three-stage rocket equipped with four 75t engines in the first stage, one in the second stage, and one in the third stage. Among them, the first stage, which has the greatest propulsion, contains parts to fix the four engines and about 1,000 pipes that supply liquid fuel.It is known that the structure is more complex than the second and third stages and requires high technical skills. In fact, it is diagnosed that a problem occurred in the process of assembling four 75t-class engines and related piping, wires, valves, etc., and the launch schedule was delayed due to time consuming repeated disassembly and reassembly. To make matters worse, the list of parts required for assembly has changed one after another, and as the supply of new parts and additional verification work have been added, more time has been explained. The Ministry of Science and ICT assembles the 1st, 2nd and 3rd stages into a single electric vehicle (ILV) and requires an unplanned WDR experiment (rocket safety verification with an oxidant material at minus 183 degrees Celsius) to verify safety in a cryogenic environment. It was revealed that it was a factor that delayed launch.
In order to secure a rocket technology that will independently launch a 1.5t-class satellite in Korea in the low Earth orbit (600~800km above), a total budget of 1.9572 trillion won from 2010 to 2022 was invested. It is an ongoing national project.
On this day, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that it would begin development of the geostationary public complex communication satellite’Cheonrian 3′. The goal is to launch the Cheonrian 3 in 2027 after launching the Korean launch vehicle Nuri. The geostationary orbit public complex communication satellite development project passed a preliminary feasibility study in June and a budget of 4118 billion won will be invested. Through the Cheonrian 3, we plan to support disaster and safety response such as monitoring flood disasters, support maritime activities, and support emergency communication in disaster areas, provide GPS location information signals, and serve as a test bed for future satellite communication technology, but the science and machinery are skeptical. There is not much. A science and machinery official said, “Like the delay of the Nuri launch vehicle, if the launch point actually approaches, why not postpone the Cheonrian 3 for various reasons?” As Hang Woo-yeon plans to complete the lunar lander by improving the Nuri, the delay in launching the Nuri is likely to have a negative impact on the lunar exploration project. The lunar exploration project that Hang Woo-yeon has prepared for a long time is largely divided into the development of a lunar orbiter and a lunar lander. The lunar orbiter is a probe that orbits the moon and observes the terrain and collects information on the landing site of the lander. Previously, Hang Woo-yeon had planned to launch a lunar orbiter within this year, but failed to meet the target weight of the lunar orbiter last year of 550 kg, and once again delayed the lunar exploration plan. Eventually, the launch schedule was postponed to July 2022, and the required budget has also increased sharply from 97.8 billion won in September last year to 233.3 billion won in March. The same goes for the lunar lander. Originally, Hang Woo-yeon planned to develop and launch a lunar lander by 2025. However, as the development of the lunar orbiter was delayed, the Moon Jae-in administration eventually delayed the completion of the lunar lander development to 2030.
[김시균 기자 / 이종화 기자]
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