South Korea’s Naro space rocket set to blast off on Jan 30

South Korea will again seek to join the elite global space club next week with a third launch of its Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), the science ministry said Thursday. The space rocket, also known as Naro, will be launched Wednesday from the country’s Naro Space Center, 480 kilometers south of Seoul, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said in a released statement. The decision came at a meeting of the Launch Preparation Committee. “After reviewing launch preparations and weather forecasts, the committee has confirmed the third launch of the Naro will be possible on Jan. 30 as of now,” the ministry said. The launch committee earlier set Jan. 30-Feb. 8 as candidate dates for the scheduled launch. It will be South Korea’s third attempt to send the KSLV-1 into space after its two attempts in 2009 and 2010 ended in failures. A successful launch will make South Korea the world’s 13th nation to have ever sent a rocket into space from its own soil. The country has sent up about 10 satellites, but all using foreign space rockets and from foreign soil. Separate from the ongoing Naro space program, which is set to end later in the year, the country is working to develop its own space launch vehicles with plans to launch an indigenous space rocket with a 300-ton thrust in 2021.