South Korea’s Successful Launch of Homegrown Nuri Space Rocket

South Korea’s domestically produced Nuri space rocket. Photo by Yonhap / Reuters

MSIT (Ministry of Science and ICT) officially announced that South Korea successfully launched its first domestically developed space rocket ‘Nuri’ in the second attempt. Nuri lifted off from the launch site in Goehung at 4pm Korean Time (June 21th). It took 16 minutes in total, including the first stage separation, pairing separation, the second stage separation, and the dummy satellite separation.

‘Nuri’ rocket is also known as KSLV-II (Korean Space Launch Vehicle-II). The launch was conducted by the KARI (Korea Aerospace Research Institute).

South Korea has officially become the world’s seventh country that is eligible to launch a satellite into orbit weighing more than 1 ton.

Photo by Yonhap

Some Trivia to Read about Nuri Rocket

Q1. What does ‘Nuri’ mean?
A1. It means ‘world’ in old Korean.

Q2. How big is ‘Nuri’ rocket?
A2. 47.2m (155ft) in height, 3.5m (11ft) diameter, and composed of 3 stages.

Q3. When was the 1st attempt of launch?
A3. October 2021, and was not fully successful.

Q4. How long did South Korea prepar the ‘Nuri’ project?
A4. Since 2010