S. Korea delays launch of space rocket Nuri over technical glitch

Baku, May 25, AZERTAC

South Korea decided Wednesday to postpone the launch of its space rocket Nuri due to a technical glitch found during final preparations, the science ministry said, according to Yohap News Agency.

"While controlling a helium valve, aerospace engineers found a communications problem between a launch control computer and a launch pad facility control computer," Vice Science Minister Oh Tae-seog said in a briefing held at the Naro Space Center in Goheung. "The valve is OK but the system might matter when it goes into the automatic operation system. So we inevitably canceled the scheduled launch."

Officials detected the problem around 3:30 p.m. just before they were to start injecting fuel and oxidizer into the rocket.

The launch management committee, which oversees the entire process, held a meeting on the issue and decided to delay the schedule.

The committee will determine whether South Korea will go ahead with the launch on Thursday.

The 200-ton Nuri had been scheduled to blast off from the Naro Space Center in the country's southern coastal village of Goheung at around 6:24 p.m.

In 2022, Nuri sent the dummy satellite into its target orbit as planned, South Korea became the seventh country in the world to have developed a space launch vehicle that can carry a more than 1-ton satellite, after Russia, the United States, France, China, Japan and India.

The country has secured the key independent technology for developing and launching space rockets carrying homegrown satellites, opening up a new era in the country's space program.

The 2 trillion-won (US$1.52 billion) Nuri project that began in 2010 will continue until 2027, with three additional rocket launches.