Finally, South Korea has launched a satellite into orbit around the Earth, though we will not know if the payload has been positioned properly until Thursday.
Iran has also allegedly launched a monkey into space, however, that just doesn’t impress as much as the KSLV-1 launch does.
Also, to remind people just how different this rocket launch and the development of such really is from what the people up north do, here is a bit of my favorite K-pop, B1A4 performing “Beautiful Target”. Please turn up your volume and click on the photo.
{ 50 comments… read them below or add one }
Congrats to the good folks at KARI and KAIST on what looks like a very successful launch.
This is a very good thing for Korea’s aerospace ambitions. As with the Winter Olympics, “third time’s a charm” is becoming a Korean rule of thumb.
Anyway…well deserved, and well overdue!
DLB
Couple of observations:
1) Koreans are, if nothing else, persistent.
2) What’s next? Maintaining a space program is expensive. Why not just hire the Russians to launch your satellites like even some American companies do.
3) It looks like an ICBM.
I love how the entire side of the rocket is emblazoned with “Dae Han Min Guk” just in case anyone confuses it with a North Korean rocket. Hahaha… but I’m sure most foreigners will just see the Hanguk (or “Chosunguk,” depending on your perspective) script and get it confused any ways.
BTW, I just noticed that R. Elgin posted this item under “Travel.”
Funnnneeee!
DLB
Not many in Korea really care I doubt. It’s a paid Russian rocket. Read all the negative commentaries by Korean readers in major newspapers, it’s not pretty.
I still can’t believe Korea had an agreement with the US not to build long-range rockets all this time.
just like cm said, big deal! did korea build that rocket? could someone tell me how korea benefits from this?
He’s in line with most Korean men and their negative views on Aeronautics since Yi, So-yeon(Korean female) was chosen to be the 1st Korean Astronaut instead of Ko San(the Korean male astronaut who violated regulations several times at a Russian training center by removing sensitive reading materials and mailing them to Korea). If Ko San hadn’t gotten caught Elgin would’ve tagged it differently into something like “Korean Aeronautics and Space.”
KPop on Mars, dude.
Nationalists will masturbate over this for months. But it does this country zero good.
I… didn’t realize that Elgin was a chauvinistic nationalist Korean.
Well, you live and learn.
I can’t even begin to understand why some know-nothing Koreans are pooh-poohing this genuine accomplishment.
Putting aside the long-term national security benefits, Korea spent about $500 million on this program to date. According to the Hyundai Research Institute, Korea is now expected to grab about 5.5 trillion won, or $5 billion, worth of the international space services market by 2020.
By what bizarre metric is this considered a bad investment?
DLB
You mean be rational and spend your resources wisely and not go for the big nationalistic statement? Don’t expect miracles. Korea will keep launching these things even if they are throwing money into the mud. For some reason its important to have a space program. Don’t ask me why.
Its good for the space ambitions, this is grated. But more fundamentally whats so good about these space ambitions? Why the need to have a space program when you can pay others to do pretty much all of the work for you, for far less. But yea, congrats to the KARI and KAIST people for successfully getting their paws on a lot of tax money. Good job, guys and girls.!
The editorial article in Hani.co.kr explained it well. This rocket was like a trailer, getting pulled by a Russian built car.
500 million dollars to launch a Russian rocket? How does this guarantee a $5 billion slice of this space services market when Korea has not yet built its own rocket? More garbage neo-mercantilism from dlbrach: we have to do everything ourselves.
I know a lot of folk who say the same thing about NASA.
Iran has already launched satellites into space, both with other countries and on its own. Iran has a better space program than South Korea does. I believe North Korea has a better program as well.
You win “Best reply” and because of that, I edited the thread to reflect this.
. . . we will get “Korean Space Monkeys˜ ®
I can hardly wait for the M video too.
Both countries have no beat and suck, so no matter how many monkeys they collectively launch into space, they will always suck in a humourless way; stinking of worthless ambition. North Korea may have great beer but, still, they are afraid of the beat and have no groove.
Pawi and Elgin are the same person. Mystery solved ≈
Thanks for the chuckle. Sure, one successful launch using technology and tech support from Russia means $5 billion in space contracts is waiting for you. In a vacuum, yes, but there’s this thing of pesky competitors out there, some of them even private (who will win in the end).
They have better space programs. They’ve built and launched their own rockets and sent payloads into orbit on their own. There’s no indication that South Korea will be able to do this any time soon, let alone surpass them in space capabilities.
Not so fast Wedge… Korean’s first car technology was from Mitsubishi (Japan) and Perkinson (U.S.). Samsung’s first consumer electronics technology was from Sanyo. Even America’s rocket technology isn’t “indigenous,” if you will. Some dude named Wernher von Braun contributed a lot and that name doesn’t sound too American to me, even, theoretically, if he was to have come from Minnesota.
Now, an article claiming that $5.5B of business is literally “within” grasp is pure hogwash, but I wouldn’t rule out significant Korean commercial success at some point in the future. Korea’s successful track record from going to zero to hero in given industries where they put a lot of focus and effort in are just too numerous to ignore.
And they are right.
Question CM, but is this rocket any less “Korean” then say the Hyundai Pony that was practically a United Nations of sorts of outside automotive technologies?
The payload of a satellite is similar to the weight and thrust requirements to send a nuclear warhead into space and crashing into a location far away. Been true since Sputnik, which is why Eisenhower nearly threw-up in his coffee when the Russians successfully did it.
As long as the Norks do it, the South will too. Plus, there is ever the possibility that America may leave and take their nuke shield w/them.
Mars? F*ck that. How about K-pop played in a continuous loop from a satellite in geosynchronous orbit with enough nuclear fuel to last 1,000 years?
How about a cost comparison of just paying Japan for its satellite-acquired data, or even a consortium with its aerospace companies? What about the costs of a space race, when Seoul needs to budget more for defense? What about the diplomatic issues?
Gee, I don’t know about that Rob. I don’t mind NASA spending billions to send rovers to Mars to satisfy the curiosity of 0.00001% of the population.
I don’t think we can channel that money to better causes like development of alternative fuels, education, school nutritional programs, etc.
It’s actually an ad for Korean language schools in every American school district. Or, a way to waegook to come to Korea, to learn Korean
I figured Salaryman probably had a serious hate-on for NASA, but I didn’t picture you as part of that crowd.
Wouldn’t work because there is a basic lack of trust between these two countries. An agreement on some very traumatic parts of the past might be a good first start, but there is an impass.
An EADS type of consortium in Asia where aerospace technologies are shared between nations for a common goal would be powerful institution, but again, there is a fundamental lack of trust between Japan and Korea for either to share critically important technologies directly tied to each other’s national securities. It is Japan that has taken a step backwards with the election of someone like Shinzo Abe.
Now *that’s* funny.
Speaking of which, the US launched its TDRS 11 satellite, with a National Reconnaissance asset aboard, into orbit. How much clutter is up there now? ROK troops can’t fly to Cobra Gold on the new cargo plane. Is the US being miserly about its intelligence? If not, why breed the cow, when the American beef is cheaper?
I agree on the diplomatic non-starter, but dlbaruch was talking about spreadsheet figures, not bottomless questions about IR. Whether one, two, or more spacefaring states in one region is stabilizing or not is a future post for me to write. Regardless, a cold hard factoid about the alternatives is an issue I think most South Koreans would appreciate. Or, has penis envy overtaken the entire population?
I’m wondering. Are there any private space ventures in Korea?
And, NASA has also probed the asteroid belt, which are a boon for private companies to mine. Hubble, Voyager (still!), the Pluto probe, and Galileo are revolutionizing what we know of the universe. Mercury has ice – who’da thunk it! And, to be fair, the Soviets did a bang-up job exploring Venus with their Venera program. Private industry couldn’t have done this, but now it can find the most profitable ways to exploit what NASA started.
No, only if dreaming could make it so.
But, did Seoul pay $500m – or the equivalent then – for that auto technology? And, did anyone bother about the diplomatic consequences of a car?
Heard during the Armstrong & Getty Show the other day:
“Iranian Space Monkey
Iranian Space Monkey
Throwing poo at Israel from the upper stratosphere
Iranian Space Monkey”
Hagel is planning on scrapping that nuke shield, probably not a good long term bet for protection.
http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-supports-nuclear-arms-cuts-then-elimination-173011848–politics.html
The Russians and the Chinese are snickering in their wheaties…..”Sure, Sure, you give up yours first and we’ll follow…snort, snort..”
South Korea started its space program in 2009, and spent $500 million. They better spend far more than that to even begin to match any of the big boys who have been doing this far longer (over several decades in fact), and who have spent billions upon billions. This space industry is a bottomless money pit, even for United States. Wagkon, I disagree with your comparison with this and Korea’s auto industry. Auto industry has been fabulously profitable which actually leads to jobs for Koreans. As a smaller economy, South Korea should be picking its champion industries wisely, instead of spreading its limited resources thinly, trying to do everything and be everything. What kills me is that Park Geun Hye’s ambitious social welfare spendings are well short of funding, so they’ll have to start raising taxes soon which will squeeze out the middle class even further. But here they are, they just shot up $500 million worth of Russian sponsored space junk that nobody cares about, all because of some serious national penis envy. It’s disgusting if you ask me.
Iran’s satellites have a life of just a few months. They clearly aren’t motivated by an interest in space exploration.
Yes, I’m all for scientific research, but I question the wisdom of spending so much on preparing for problems we might face in a hundred years if we don’t change our ways when we could instead invest in finding ways in which we can prevent those problems now.
How much have the big boys spent? Im sure its orders of magnitude more than that 3 billion dollar slice dlbarch was talking about.
And they will spend more. The goal is to put an all Korean made rocket into space by 2018, and a manned mission to the moon by 2025. Ambitious plans.
Is that a nervous smile on your face?
What’s good about it? It’s another means for the government to provide subsidies to the chaebols.
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