The First Homegrown Space Rocket 'Nuri'
Success of Naro rocket and start of future Danuri rocket
Cub-reporter Kim Kyu-young
kyuyoung0409@naver.com
On 21 June, 2022, Korea successfully launched its first homegrown space rocket, Nuri, opening a new history for South Korea's space industry. Despite Nuri costing the Korean government an estimated two trillion Won to develop, it marked Korea as only the seventh country that can reach Earth's orbit using a practical satellite. Furthermore, based on the success of the launch, Korea's first lunar orbiter, named 'Danuri', was launched in August. The launch successfully took place on 5 August. Accordingly, Korea now officially has the capability to launch space projectiles.
The launch of Nuri was over twelve years in the making, starting in 2010. The twelve years journey to success had seen many twists and turns, which only made the eventual success more rewarding. The launch of Nuri lasted for just 16 minutes, but for that 16 minutes Korean researchers had to study, and experience failure for twelve years and six months. It is impossible to quantify or explain the effort that has gone into achieving this feat. Researcher Go Jung-hwan said, "We have the ability to send anything we want in to space." Of course, the success of Nuri cannot exclude the failure of 'Naro'. Naro was a rocket that was launched on 30 January, 2013. If Naro had not existed, Nuri could not exist. Naro was made through cooperation with Russia, which made it a complicated project due to the technology transfer that is required and the issue of national security related to space projectile technology. Russia's technology security was intense, meaning that it was hard to receive information. Therefore, researchers said it was the result of incredible effort that they were able to gain information from the Russians.
At the moment of launch, researchers said, "When we were monitoring the launch, 16 minutes felt like 16 years. We monitored the second launch with fear of failure like in the first launch." One researcher added, "I did not want to get stressed and make my colleagues stressed. We wanted to create a calm environment." After the successful launch of Nuri, the paper throwing celebration became an issue.
The main instigator was researcher Lee Sang-il, who provided the most entertaining and moving images. One netizen said, "maybe he wants to be like a character in the movies, collecting documents sheepishly." Added to this, researcher Lee Sang-il, said "I wanted to celebrate in a fun and exciting way, but I do not like an untidy environment. As soon as I dropped the documents, I tidied them up speedily."
Regarding the successful Nuri launch, one student in the Department of Aeronautics and Electronics said, "I was really surprised that a projectile made using Korean technology was successfully launched. The developing situation that was related to the space engineering industry was a very proud moment for us and meaningful to us." About the future development of Korea's flight and space technology, he said "The industry of space engineering and flight is essential to develop for Korea. Korea's future is bright because we are at an early stage. So, I want to work like in this field of occupation."
In reality, many people's support is disconnected from Korea's space engineering development and research. It is not an exaggeration to say that success exists because of failure. Korea will be continue to develop, and we expect another glorious moment. Korea, which suffered a loss of pride due to Russia's lack of communication during its contract, can now be confident. Nuri was not a simple success for us. It included the researchers' blood, sweat and tears of more than twelve years of effort. We must continue to pay attention to Korea's future space engineering development.