Here's South Korea's first space rocket, the prosaically named Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, whose scheduled launch was aborted today. If it ever launches, will the KSLV-1 establish South Korea as a space power, or create new tensions with North Korea?
Korea aborted the rocket launch seven minutes before lift-off, but officials wouldn't say why. The rocket was supposed to place a Russia satellite in orbit, and comes four months after North Korea's own rocket launch. North Korea had been harshly critical of the South Korean initiative.
Photos by AP/Yonhap
In this Monday Aug. 17, 2009 file photo, South Korea's first space rocket sits on its launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Korea. The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 was planned to blast off from a launch pad Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009, officials said, in a landmark launch that could boost the country's ambition to become a regional space power but would trigger angry response from North Korea. (AP Photo/Yonhap, Bae Jae-man, File)
A South Korean flag at half-mast hangs near the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, South Korea's first space rocket at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, south of Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009. Kim Dae-jung, who survived assassination attempts and a death sentence during his years as a dissident to become president of South Korea, and whose unflagging efforts to reconcile with communist North Korea earned him the Nobel Peace Prize _ died Tuesday, hospital officials said. (AP Photo/ Yonhap, Han Sang-kun)
In this photo released by Korea Aerospace Research Institute, the control center of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, South Korea's first space rocket is seen at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, south of Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009
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. Space officials aborted South Korea's first rocket launch just minutes before liftoff Wednesday.