Lanceur Sud Coréen KSLV-1

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La fusée porteuse sud-coréenne KSLV-1 (Korean Space Launch Vehicle-1), lancée jeudi depuis le cosmodrome de Naro, s'est écrasée après avoir atteint la hauteur de 70 mètres, annonce la chaîne sud-coréenne YTN.

Le contact avec la fusée a été perdu deux minutes après le lancement.

C'est le deuxième échec consécutif du tir du lanceur sud-coréen créé sur la base du premier étage de production russe avec le concours des spécialistes du Centre de production et de recherche spatiale Khrounitchev.

Le premier tir d'essai de la fusée porteuse KSLV-I a été effectué le 25 août 2009. Le premier étage de la fusée s'est détaché du lanceur comme prévu, mais le satellite n'a pas été mis sur orbite.

South Korean Launch Failure Affects Russia
The loss of South Korea’s second KSLV-1 launch vehicle, apparently to an explosion 137 sec. after liftoff, bodes ill for Russia’s space launch plans as well.
South Korean officials suggested the vehicle’s Russian-built first-stage engine was to blame for the failure. That engine — the Energomash RD-151 — is a variant of the RD-191M engine planned for the first stage of Russia’s Angara 1.1 launch vehicle now in development.
Thursday’s failure came after a malfunction with the KSLV-1 launch pad, which also was built with Russian assistance, forced the Korean Aerospace Research Agency (KARI) to postpone the attempt for a day. Engineers from both nations inspected the 108-ft.-tall rocket after the pad’s fire-suppression accidentally tripped about two-and-a-half hours before launch, spraying about 100 tons of chemically treated water toward the vehicle (Aerospace DAILY, June 10).
Launch came at 5:01 p.m. local time Thursday (4:01 a.m. EDT), and the rocket performed nominally until telemetry abruptly halted 137 sec. later. Korean officials told reporters at the launch site in Goheung that the RD-151 lost thrust, and the vehicle veered off course before the loss of communications.
“The [KSLV-1] flew normally until 137.19 seconds after liftoff, when the communications with the ground tracking facilities were severed,” said Minister of Education, Science and Technology Ahn Byung-man, according to Korean press reports. “The footage from the camera installed on the upper part of the rocket suddenly brightened at that moment, which suggests that the rocket’s first stage exploded during flight.”
The RD-151 was scheduled to burn for about 300 sec. before the Korean-built solid-fuel second stage separated with the mission’s payload, an experimental Earth-observation satellite that was also built in Korea. The KSLV-1 first stage, which also includes structural elements in common with Angara, performed well during the first flight of the South Korean launch vehicle on Aug. 25, 2009. On that mission stage separation occurred as planned, but half of the fairing enclosing the satellite atop the second stage failed to drop off. Its weight tipped the vehicle off course and prevented the satellite from achieving stable