Seoul, June 11: South Korean and Russian experts launched an investigation on Friday after the spectacular failure of the Asian country’s latest rocket launch, with some researchers blaming inadequate testing.
The Naro-1 rocket, which was Russian-made but assembled in South Korea, veered off course and exploded 137 seconds after blast-off on Thursday.
The mishap came after a first rocket failure in 2009, thwarting South Korea’s plans to launch a scientific satellite and setting back its dreams of joining Asia’s space race.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (Kari) said the debris fell into the sea, some 470km south of the Naro Space Centre’s launch pad off the southern coast.
Kari on Friday convened a meeting of a joint investigation committee of the two countries to determine the cause of the failure, a spokesperson of the Education, Science and Technology Ministry said.
—Agencies