South Korea’s Nuri Rocket Deploys 14 of 15 Satellites
Dragon Media News Desk
South Korea’s homegrown Nuri rocket lifted off successfully on Wednesday but placed only 14 of its 15 onboard satellites into orbit. Aerospace authorities initially said all the satellites had been deployed, but later corrected their announcement, confirming that one failed to separate.
The three-stage, liquid-fueled rocket, officially designated KSLV-II, launched at 12:25 p.m. local time from the Naro Space Center, about 400 kilometres southwest of Seoul. The first stage, payload fairing and second stage separated as planned, but a technical issue occurred during the final satellite deployment phase.
The main objective of Nuri’s fifth launch was to place five microsatellites from the Earth Observation Satellite Constellation for National Safety, or NEONSAT, into orbit at an altitude of 575 kilometres. All five were released successfully at intervals of 35 to 40 seconds.
A problem occurred during the subsequent deployment of 10 academic and commercial CubeSats, which were scheduled to be released in pairs. The Korea AeroSpace Administration confirmed that nine of the 10 CubeSats had separated from the rocket.
To reduce the risk of collisions in space, the rocket’s upper stage was rotated by 30 or 60 degrees between satellite releases. After the mission, it will perform further maneuvers to avoid collisions before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and burning up.
