ANKARA (AA) – South Korea successfully launched its domestically made space rocket Nuri on Tuesday.
The second launch of the rocket was a success as it “deployed satellites at the target altitude of 700 kilometers (435 miles) as planned,” Yonhap News Agency reported.
A performance verification satellite has also “successfully reached its orbit,” the report cited officials as saying.
The 200-ton Nuri took off from the Naro Space Center in the southern coastal village of Goheung at 4 p.m. local time (0700GMT).
President Yoon Suk-yeol hailed the launch, saying a “new path to space has been opened from the Republic of Korea.”
Seoul has spent nearly 2 trillion won (US$1.8 billion) on building Nuri since 2010, with all aspects including design, production, testing and launch operations done within the country.
South Korea is now the seventh country to produce “a space launch vehicle that can carry a more than 1-ton satellite, after Russia, the United States, France, China, Japan and India,” the Yonhap report said.
Nuri’s first flight last October was a failure as the rocket reached its target altitude of 700 kilometers (435 miles) but “failed to put a dummy satellite into orbit.”
South Korea is aiming for four more Nuri rocket launches by 2027, the report said.
*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid