Seoul: South Korea on Thursday launched its first homegrown space launch vehicle, Nuri, to put a satellite into the low-Earth orbit (600-800 km).
The KSLV-II, also dubbed Nuri, blasted off from the Naro Space Center in the southern coastal village of Goheung at about 5 p.m. local time (0800 GMT), live footage from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) showed.
South Korea invested almost 2 trillion won (1.7 billion US dollars) in the past decade to indigenously develop the space launch vehicle, including engine and propellant tank, as well as launch pad and launch vehicle subsystem.
The 200-ton Nuri space rocket, which measures 47.2 meters in length and 3.5 meters in maximum diameter, clustered four 75-ton-grade liquid engines in the first stage, combined with a 75-ton-grade liquid engine in the second stage and a 7-ton-grade liquid engine in the third stage.
