South Korea’s first satellite launch effort fails; Pyongyang calls for imposition of same penalties that it faced in the aftermath of its April launch attempt
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  • South Korea failed in its attempts to become only the tenth country to successfully launch a satellite. The satellite overshot its designated orbit with officials admitting that a delayed separation would result in the spacecraft not reaching its orbit1. In a bid to develop an indigenous launch capability, Seoul invested over $400 million over a period of two decades, during which it launched its satellites from other countries space vehicles. The Korea Space Launch Vehicle I or KSLV-I was a two-stage projectile which took off from the Naro Space Centre. While the first stage separated four minutes after lift off, the satellite separated five minutes later but overshot its designated orbit by about 35 kilometers. The objective of the mission was to place the satellite in an orbit 306 kilometers above the earth.

    While the Russian Space Agency built the first stage of the rocket weighing 140 tons, the second stage and the 100 kg satellite were built by the Korean Space Agency. The satellite was expected to monitor weather patterns and climate change, among other tasks. South Korea does not plan to develop a manned space program, but seeks to achieve an indigenous launch capability by 2018 and develop craft that can orbit the moon.

    Pyongyang meanwhile demanded that South Korea face the same penalties for the launch of the KSLV-I as it did for the launch of its satellite in April 2009. Reports however noted that the argument was untenable as Pyongyang was in breach of UN resolutions following its withdrawal from the NPT in 2002.

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