South Korea - Rocket launch

Historic rocket launch delayed by "software problem"

Article published on the 2009-08-20 Latest update 2009-08-20 13:47 TU

Mission Control at Naro Space Centre in Goheung
(Photo: Reuters)

South Korea has had to postpone its first home-made space rocket launch early on Thursday. Officials say a computer software fault was to blame, just eight minutes before blast-off.

Thousands of spectators were forced to go home disappointed, after gathering on the beach next to the launch site in Goheung to count-down the blast-off.

After investing over 502.5 billion won (about 294.3 million Euros) into the project, South Korea would have been the tenth country in the world to put a satellite into orbit using its own rocket.

The project in partnership with Russia, has been delayed seven times since 2002, and South Korean experts expect it to take up to three days to fix the problem.

Kim Jung-Hyun, the deputy Science and Technology Minister, says the problem is in software that gauges the pressure of fuel tanks.

The rocket remains on the launch pad but the highly corrosive fuel has been emptied and the tanks dried.

The official launch period ends on 26 August, giving South Korea another six days to carry out a successful lift-off.

South Korea has previously launched ten satellites successfully into space using equipment from other countries. In April 2008, the first South Korean astronaut, Yi So-yeon, went into space aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.