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South Korea Scrubs Satellite Launch

By Jane Yager, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 19, 2009 5:16 AM CDT

(Newser) – South Korea scrubbed a planned satellite launch minutes before liftoff today, citing an unspecified technical error, reports the BBC. Seoul has been itching to join the Asian space race and has already produced 10 satellites for other countries' rockets. But the event had threatened to strain recently improved relations with North Korea, which claims—to the disbelief of South Korea and the US—to have successfully launched a satellite in April.

South Korea wants a space program to compete with China, Japan and India, and is eager to send more astronauts aloft after its first mission on a Russian craft. But officials had cautioned that countries' first satellite launches often fail, and that their rocket, Naro-ho, has had technical problems. This is the seventh time the project, started in 2002 with Russian aid, has been halted.

[Images (4)]

[Quotes (2)]

Space officials aborted South Korea's first rocket launch just minutes before liftoff Wednesday. The scheduled launch had threatened to raise North Korea's ire. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

Models of mock North Korea's Scud-B missile, right, and other South Korean missiles are displayed at Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, April 4, 2009. (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

Space officials aborted South Korea's first rocket launch just minutes before liftoff Wednesday. (AP Photo/Yonhap. Lim Hun-jung)

The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, South Korea's first space rocket, sits on its launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Korea, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009. (AP Photo/Yonhap)

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North Korea’s reaction will be a barometer of how committed it is to the recent positive trend. - Andrew Gilholm, security analyst

The South Koreans have developed their program in a very open and transparent way and in keeping with the international agreements that they have signed onto. This is in stark contrast to the example set by North Korea, which has not abided by its international agreements. - State Department spokesman

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