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| The Nuri space rocket is ready to be moved to a launch pad at Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, Monday. Courtesy of KARI |
By Baek Byung-yeul
The Nuri space rocket's scheduled launch date is delayed to Thursday from Wednesday, as strong winds at the launch site raised safety concerns and made it unsafe to transport the domestically developed rocket to the launch pad, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), which oversees launches, said Tuesday.
"The Ministry of Science and ICT and the KARI held a meeting of the flight test committee at 6 a.m. and of the launch management committee at 7 a.m., regarding the transfer and launch of the Nuri. As a result of the meeting, we decided that it could be difficult to secure the full safety of the launch pad engineers because there is a strong wind at Naro Space Center today and there is a possibility it will get stronger," the KARI said in a statement.
"Therefore, we decided to postpone the transfer and launch of the Nuri by one day."
In order to be launched into space, the Nuri needs to be transported a day before the launch date to a launch pad from the assembly center at Naro Space Center.
The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) forecast that the wind speeds around the space center would be up to 10 meters per second on Tuesday afternoon, and could be even stronger, at least 15 to 20 meters per second, higher off the ground by the launch pad.
However, the KMA's Gwangju branch forecast that the wind speed at the launch site on Wednesday will drop to 3 to 4 meters per second although it will be cloudy. On Thursday afternoon, the launch date, the weather is forecast to be clear without clouds and the wind speed will be 6 to 7 meters per second.
Previously, the KARI said that rain would not be a big problem for the Nuri's launch, but it could be a problem for the rocket to be moved to the launch pad.
"A rainy environment is not a big issue as the Nuri is completely sealed to block rainwater from entering. But several problems may occur while moving it to the launch pad. A vehicle transporting the Nuri may slip on the road due to rain. It takes about an hour for the rocket to get to the launch pad. It also takes a considerable amount of time to stand it up and stabilize it on the pad," Jang Young-soon, director of KARI's Launcher System Development division, said on June 10.
Thursday's scheduled launch will be the second attempt to launch a Nuri rocket, following the first launch last October, which ended after it failed to put a dummy satellite into orbit, as its engine burned out 46 seconds earlier than expected.
