Last week, the rocket made with our technology, the Nuri, took off for the first time.
It failed to put the satellite into orbit, but it did reach its target height.
There is great anticipation that the second launch will be successful in May next year to secure the so-called 'projectile sovereignty' that can launch rockets on its own at any time and compete in the global market, but there is a problem.
Nuriho is a bit less cost-effective.
The success rate of rocket launches in other countries is at the level of 95-98%, so the time to measure the success rate of projectiles has already passed.
The world market has come to an era where rockets are evaluated as cost-effectiveness.
The cost-effectiveness evaluation method is simpler than you think.
Let's see how much it costs to send 1 kg of satellites into space.
Now, in other countries, it costs between 15,000 and 20,000 dollars per kg, or about 20 million Korean won.
It costs 200 million won for 10 kg, and 20 billion won for 1,000 kg.
How about Nuriho?
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute estimates the cost per 1 kg of satellite to be 70 million won.
More than three times more expensive than the global average.
But now, the leader in private space technology, US SpaceX, has reduced the unit price to a whopping $2,720, or 3.14 million won.
The key was mass production and reuse.
SpaceX's first stage of the Falcon 9 projectile rises into the air and then lands again, making it recyclable, significantly reducing launch costs.
The method of operation is also drastic.
If you look at the Falcon 9 now, the rocket head is big.
It can carry up to 15 times the size of the Nuri, or a whopping 22 tons of satellites or cargo.
Since 15 satellites aboard the Nuri can be launched at a time, transportation efficiency is good and the cost is further reduced.
If other countries' projectiles are taxis, SpaceX has made buses.
Even if Nuri succeeds, it is said that it would be better to entrust it to Space X because it will cost more than 20 times more than Space X.
However, the growth of the space market is scary to give up as it is.
The size of the space market was 521 trillion won in 2020, a 4.4% growth in one year, and 2.76 times larger than 15 years ago.
More than 1,000 satellites go into space each year.
In addition, this year, even a civilian, Amazon founder Bezos, went to space, and space travel began.
It is predicted that the market size will exceed KRW 1 trillion by 2040.
By the way, we are still just customers here.
We make all the satellites we use these days, but we don't have our own launch vehicle technology.
The high-performance clairvoyant 2A and 2B satellites were all made with our technology, but in 2018 and 19, we paid tens of billions of dollars to send them to the European space agency Ariane 5 and sent them into space. They have given launch services to SpaceX and Russia, respectively.
If our own launch vehicle technology is perfected, we can also jump into the space industry, which is responsible for everything from satellite production to launch.
You can also target the Southeast Asian market, where the demand for satellites is growing significantly.
SpaceX said earlier that it operates buses, but an American company is targeting the small launch vehicle and small satellite market.
Although it is expensive in terms of cost-effectiveness, it is a pioneer in the space quick service market where customers can shoot whenever they want.
That said, there are still many areas to be explored.
As we saw the potential with the Nuriho, we need to actively invest in the development of space technology, such as mass production of small launch vehicles or parts through 3D printing, and reuse of launch vehicles.
(Video coverage: Chansu Lee, video editing: Jinhoon Park, CG: Sooin Jo, screen source: NASA Space X ESA Relativity Space Blue origin)