KSLV 1 (Naro 1) - STSAT 2B (Launch failed, June 10, 2010)

[EarthlingX]

Yeah, a real disappointment but at least this week the Falcon 9 was a smashing success so it was a good week overall. I liveblogged the launch a bit:

http://www.pagef30.com/2010/06/korean-n ... ching.html

(I've lived in Korea for seven years, have been looking forward to Korea having its own rocket since it was first announced in 2003)

There's a Korean media player called Gom Player that in the Korean version has links to a number of live feeds, including this one. If anyone really wants to prepare for the next one you might want to start ahead of time by downloading it and then finding a Korean friend to make you an ID, or send in a passport scan. Registering on Korean sites is a REALLY annoying process if you're not Korean. I thought I was going to be at home to watch it on TV but I ended up being at Starbucks with no time to register so I was only able to watch it 90 seconds at a time.

Anyway, Russia is contracted for at least the next flight so there's definitely going to be a next launch.

Nice blog

5:09 pm: Here's another image of the launch to look at while we wait.

 

[EarthlingX]

http://www.spacedaily.com : South Korea's Launch Failure - It's A Who Done It

by Launchspace Staff
for Launchspace
Bethesda MD (SPX) Jun 18, 2010

Last week, South Korea attempted a second launch of its new vehicle, the NARO-1. Unfortunately, this too failed to achieve orbit. To make a bad situation worse, the "blame game" has already started. The Russians have apparently stated the explosion occurred in the Korean-made second stage, while the Koreans have indicated that this happened in the Russian-made first stage.

The reality of the situation is that no one yet knows what happened or why it happened. Every statement so far appears to be speculative and politically driven. This is not a good start to finding out what really went wrong.

Looking back into the long history of launch failures, one may expect the cause of this one to be the result of a combination of minor failures in the hardware, software, testing and management processes.