Seoul launches its first space rocket using South Korean technologies

The Nuri rocket took off on June 21 from Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Korea.

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2 mins

The South Korean space program has just taken a giant leap forward.

With the successful launch on June 21 of its first space rocket built using local technologies, South Korea joins the very small club of nations that have developed a space launcher capable of carrying a satellite weighing more than one ton, after Russia. , the United States, France, China, Japan and India.

A tour de force for this country which, even if it is renowned for its high-tech products, only got into the international space race late.

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From our correspondent in Seoul

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Nuri's second launch attempt 

After taking off at 4 p.m. (local time) from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, in the southwest of the country, the 200-ton Nuri rocket successfully deployed the satellites it was carrying to the target altitude of 700 km, as intended.

Today's shot was the second after a failed first attempt last October.

Arrived only at the beginning of the 1990s in the space conquest, it was in 2013 that South Korea successfully launched its very first rocket, which nevertheless included a first stage of Russian construction.

Over the past ten years, Seoul has invested $1.8 billion to design Nuri locally and with South Korean technologies.

2031, heading for the Moon

Building on this success, the country now aims to carry out four more launches of this rocket by 2027 and is now eyeing the Moon with the dispatch of a lunar landing module in 2031.

► To read also: South Korea: launch of the first 100% national rocket, but failure of the mission

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• South Korea

• Space

• Yoon Suk-yeol