On June 21, South Korea successfully launched its homegrown space rocket and put multiple satellites into low-Earth orbit. The “Korea Space Launch Vehicle 2” (KSLV-II), also known as “Nuri”, launched from the Naro Space Center in the southern coastal village of Goheung at about 4:00 pm local time. Meanwhile the launched has been broadcast by live from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). The three-stage space rocket flew past an altitude of 200 kilometers after separating its fairing at about 4:03 pm, and the third-stage booster engine stopped at 4:13 pm as it reached the target altitude of 700 kilometers. The verification satellite and the dummy satellite were separated from the booster at 4:14 pm and 4:16 pm each. The rocket was loaded with a performance verification satellite weighing 162.5 kilograms to verify the launch vehicle’s capability and four cube satellites, developed by four universities for academic research purposes, along with a 1.3-ton dummy satellite.
On the other hand, the 200-ton Nuri rocket, which measures 47.2 meters in length and 3.5 meters in maximum diameter, was clustered by four 75-ton-grade liquid engines in the first stage, one 75-ton-grade liquid engine in the second stage and one 7-ton-grade liquid engine in the third stage.