spacetoday.net: South Korea launches rocket; satellite fate unknown

Posted: Tue, Aug 25, 2009, 8:22 AM ET (1222 GMT)
KSLV-1 first launch (Yonhap)

South Korea launched its first orbital rocket on Tuesday, although the fate of the satellite on board was not immediately clear. The Korea Space Launch Vehicle 1 (KSLV-1) lifted off at 4 am EDT (0800 GMT), 5 pm local time) Tuesday on its inaugural flight, carrying a small experimental satellite. The satellite was supposed to be placed into a 300-kilometer orbit, but initial reports indicated that the satellite failed to separate on schedule. The reports were not clear whether the satellite was placed in a higher-than-planned orbit or failed to separate from the rocket's upper stage at all. Other aspects of the launch vehicle, which uses a Russian-built first stage, appeared to operate well. The long-postponed launch was previously scheduled for last week but scrubbed minutes before liftoff because of pressurization problem traced back to a software glitch.