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South Korea succeeds in launching its first domestic space vehicle but fails-
darkjedi:
Nose Fairing Malfunction Caused South Korea's First Rocket Launch Mishap: Experts
November 05, 2009 12:28 PM
SEOUL, Nov 5 (Bernama) -- The partial failure of South Korea's first rocket launch earlier this year, was caused by problems in the nose fairing assembly, an independent panel of experts said Thursday, Yonhap news agency reported.
The seven-person civilian panel said it had reviewed all data collected during the launch of the 140-ton Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) on Aug 25 and confirmed that other systems on the rocket functioned normally.
The KSLV-1 also called Naro-1 was jointly developed with Russia and was designed to place a 100kg scientific satellite into low Earth orbit.
The rocket then lifted off successfully from the Naro Space Center 485km south of Seoul, but the satellite did not gain proper orbital velocity that caused it to fall back to the Earth shortly after takeoff, Yonhap said.
"Failure to place the scientific satellite into orbit was caused by 'abnormal' separation of one fairing cover," a report compiled by experts said.
It said detailed analysis of possible causes and land-based tests raised two possibilities for the failure.
"In the first scenario, the explosives used to separate the two nose farings from the rocket exploded on time at 216 seconds after blastoff, yet unexplained mechanical problems caused one fairing to stay attached for another 324 seconds," the findings said.
"Another possibility involves only one of the explosive charges going off on time, while the second detonated 540 seconds into the flight just before the satellite separated from the rocket," it said.
The panel said it will conduct more simulations to determine the exact reason for the fairing malfunction with a conclusive ruling to be made by year's end.
It, in addition, said engineers are trying to determine an unexplained hike in temperatures detected by sensors on board the second stage rocket just as the first nose fairing was ejected.
The report by the panel headed by Lee In, an aerospace engineering professor at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, supports the preliminary assessment of a fairing malfunction made by the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) the day after the launch.
KARI is responsible for the Naro-1 project and worked with Russia's Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center to make the two-stage rocket.
The first stage rocket was made in Russia with the second stage, including the fairing assembly and the satellite being manufactured in South Korea.
The government, meanwhile, said that efforts are underway to prepare for the second launch of the Naro-1 rocket in the first half of 2010.
-- BERNAMA
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