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Second Straight Rocket Failure For South Korea

Posted by timothy on from the rockets-to-space-a-complex-thing dept.

eldavojohn writes "South Korea suffered its second straight setback today as its Naro-1 rocket carrying a scientific satellite exploded. The rocket produced a bright flash during stage-one ignition as the ground crews lost contact with it. South Korea paired with Russia to produce the Naro-1 and was looking to both relieve its dependence on other nations to put its satellites in orbit and compete with the space programs of China, India, and Japan. Following a failure on August 25, 2009, this marks the second failed attempt for Naro Space Center to launch a Naro-1 rocket. It appears the old adage revolving around the complexities of 'rocket science' remains valid."

6 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Eventually they'll get it right by Mathinker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Progress plods on, and if they keep trying, they will eventually get it right, even if it isn't particularly easy.

    I'm not sure I'm discouraged (because this makes it look like it will take more time before humanity can easily colonize space) or encouraged (because this makes it look like it will take more time before every third-world country will be able to produce intercontinental missiles).

    1. Re:Eventually they'll get it right by sznupi · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Strangely, this actually seems to mean that N. Korea (I guess among the so called "third-world country better not able to produce intercontinental missiles") has quite comparable luck with launches, perhaps even slighhty better one.

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
    2. Re:Eventually they'll get it right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Not valid argument. There is a hell of a difference in constructing a space rocket and a missile carrier. The involved forces and energies are several order of magnitudes larger and more complex to control....

    3. Re:Eventually they'll get it right by tophermeyer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah but the inefficiencies that stem from terrified workers are offset by the massive amounts of resources the DPRK is dumping into these programs. The RoK has been worried about silly things like feeding their population, and pursuing ridiculous "non-military technologies".

  2. Re:Did it fail? by Threni · · Score: 2, Interesting

    And of course with Russian being involved, they'd have the perfect alibi.
    Whether it's military planes at airshows, submarines, preventing terrorism at schools, or trying to help assist at the sites of polish plane crashes without the soldiers going through the dead people's pockets looking for cash and credit cards, there's always some way of Russia fucking things up.

  3. Re:2nd... ? by Bearhouse · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, they do for the North!
    (In British English 'bent'=stolen, illegal)