The First Rocket Developed by South Korea: Nuri

South Korea launches its first homegrown rocket, stepping towards becoming a leading country in space exploration.

By. Siwon 8.2

The Nuri rocket is the first space launch vehicle to be made, tested, and blasted off using homegrown South Korean technology. It cost approximately 2 trillion won (which is about 55 billion THB) and more than 7 years to develop.

Last month (Oct. 21), it was lifted off from the Naro Space Centre in Goheung, South Korea, at 5 p.m. local time. Although the Nuri went as high as 700 km after 15 minutes, it did not successfully put the dummy satellite in the proper orbit for unknown reasons. “The Nuri has failed to complete its mission,” South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in reported. Yet, he commented that sending the first launch of a homegrown rocket itself was a great achievement.

According to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), South Korea’s next goal is to carry out four more launches of the Nuri until 2027 to increase reliability. Currently, South Korea is behind other countries in its development for exploration; previous attempts by Seoul, South Korea’s capital, to launch a rocket in 2009 and 2010 were also failures. KARI hopes that the launch of Nuri will be the first step to South Korea becoming a leading country in space exploration, with its aim to send a probe to the moon by 2030.