Korea Delays Space Launch

Ashlynne9423 writes to tell us that South Korea has announced a delay to their first space launch. Holding off until the second quarter of 2009, the delays are being blamed in part on late delivery of the Russian-designed launch pad and ground equipment. "The Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV) is intended to be the first space craft to reach orbit from a launch site in Korea. The two-stage KSLV-1 is being developed by Korea with Russian assistance. The lower first stage of the craft is built in Russia, based on the Angara rocket design."

Comments

launch it

[Anonymous Coward]

when they are OLD.

Re:launch it

[Anonymous Coward]

It's all Japan's fault!

Now let's go and behead a couple of chickens before their embassy.

Re:launch it

[Bastard of Subhumani]

Chatting with robots always leads to delays.

for the record

[jacquesm]

this is *SOUTH* Korea we are talking about.

Re:for the record

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean like it says in the text AND the article?

Re:for the record

[jacquesm]

yes, and like it *doesn't* say in the title.

Re:for the record

[NoobixCube]

"RTFA" is a common enough phrase on Slashdot, but I see a very near future in which "OFFSALRTFS" will be used often. "Oh For Fuck's Sake! At Least Read The Fucking Summary"

Fast forward 2009

[RuBLed]

There would be another delay in the first space launch due to the early delivery of Starcraft II.

Re:Fast forward 2009

[scourfish]

After the Launch, the Koreans will no longer need Starcraft the game; it's just a training simulation to them. That's what the South Korean space program is really about, fighting the Zergs in real life.

So slow to the game

[Caboosian]

It's obvious why they're taking so long to get in the fight for space - they're teching to carriers!

Not Starcraft...

[sconeu]

The problem is that the Russians wanted all communications by email....

In Korea

[Anonymous Coward]

only old people use rockets.

Not the reason

[Kingrames]

They got zerg rushed and have to rebuild their base.

Cooperation == Dependence

[DynaSoar]

KARI flew the 100% indigenous KSR-3 (Korean Sounding Rocket) five times from 1993 to 2002 with a 100% success rate. The original KSLV-1 was to be a KSR-3 core with two KSR-3s strapped on in parallel, a KSR-3 second stage, and an apogee kick motor based on the earlier KSR-1 and -2 solid motors.

Suddenly in 2005 KARI announced a switch to the Russian Angara booster, unbuilt much less unproven, using entirely contracted ground equipment, and 10 times bigger than what should have flown to orbit by 2007, instead of (now, so far) 2009. And they're locked into the new design through the KSLV-3, due in 2015. Supposedly.

In 2006, Korea had 2 candidates selected as cosmonauts, one of which flew a 10 day mission to ISS in 2007. I'll bet you can't name either of them, but I'll bet you can guess who's going to be making money for years, who paid for prestige now empty, and which is sorry.

To be fair, this 9 month delay is due far more to components lost in the Chinese earthquake than the 30 day late shipment of Russian ground equipment.