Rockets, Satellites and National Self-Interest:

South Korea launched its first space launch vehicle, the KSLV-I, or Naro rocket, from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, near the end of last month. While the launch was unsuccessful, the move still marks a significant step forward for the country, with encouraging consequences for the future of Korean space flight. The process also shows Korea's propensity to favor technology domestication, and the extreme differences between the North and South.

At 5 p.m. on Aug. 25, Naro blasted off 15 minutes after the automatic countdown began. The rocket flew south, over the Philippine Sea. Fifty-four seconds after takeoff, the rocket exceeded the sound barrier. Three minutes and 35 seconds later, its upper section separated. Three minutes and 49 seconds after takeoff, its first-stage engine was ordered to stop and at three minutes and 52 seconds, its first-stage rocket separated.

Six minutes and 35 seconds after takeoff, the second-stage rocket was ignited. And at seven minutes and 33 seconds, the first-stage combustion ended. The satellite control operators waited to receive a signal from the rocket's payload, but the launch failed to put the satellite into orbit.

The problem seems to have been with the payload separation, which occurred later and higher than intended. While investigations are still underway, some say that the satellite separated from the second-stage rocket at an altitude of 342 kilometers, which is 36 kilometers higher than was planned. However, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced that a fairing covering the satellite did not separate after blastoff. The launch vehicle incurred a problem while the satellite payload fell to Earth instead of going into orbit. The first stage of the rocket was supplied by Russia, while the second stage was developed in-house by Korean engineers, and was undergoing development since 2002. The satellite also was developed in Korea. The launch itself experienced several glitches, and seven previous scheduled launches were delayed. The delays had kept the rocket on the ground since 2005.

Domestic Technology

This illustrates a constant theme in Korean technological aspirations - the need to domesticate technology. Domestication usually involves animals, adapting them for use by people. However, South Korea has a somewhat uniquely aggressive program for domesticating foreign technologies. While the first stage of the rocket was of Russian design and manufacture, the launch itself was delayed for several years while Korean engineers and scientists created the second stage at home. This was a major sticking point for the Korean project - to figure it out for themselves. It is not enough to just simply buy a second stage rocket from Russia that matches the first stage and has a proven track record of reliability. The Korean team wanted to make sure that they understood the technology and could replicate the feat on their own, without help from other countries' expertise. While the launch still had a first-stage Russian booster, the plan is still to eventually make an entirely Korean rocket. Korea wants more than to just put a satellite into orbit - they want the knowhow. The government always wants the knowhow for the country, not just the latest toys.

Initial Impact

Unlike its northern brother, South Korea spent considerable time preparing the public for the possibility of a failed launch. It repeatedly emphasized that only three of the existing seven space-faring nations put a satellite into orbit on their first tries. Also, the country was frank with discussing the difficulties of integrating the second-stage Korean-made rocket with the Russian technology of the first stage. Korean scientists are upbeat about the experience, saying that they have learned a great deal from the integration and launch of the rocket, and are definitely willing to try again. This effort has paid off, because public support for South Korea's space program has grown since the launch. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute conducted a poll asking how public opinion had changed after the liftoff on August 25. Seventy-three percent of respondents said that their support for space development-based science went up due to the launch.

Basically, the failure of the rocket should not be treated with undue significance. In the grand tradition of all high-technology space-faring nations, the South Korean program will analyze its mistakes, learn from them, and try again. These failures are actually an integral part of developing anything as complicated as true rocket science. This launch can be seen as evidence that there are not major technological walls to prevent South Korea from launching rockets in the future - only the devil in the details needs to be exorcised. Next time, or the time after that, the country will launch something into space. It is only a matter of time. President Lee Myung-bak supported this sentiment when he said, "We must realize our dream of becoming a leading country in space technology, even if it takes an eighth attempt after seven failures or a ninth attempt after eight failures," according to spokesman Lee Dong-kwan.

Comparisons with the North

For those who may just be tuning in to the Korean peninsula, this is not the first satellite launch here. North Korea claimed to have launched a satellite successfully in 1998, which orbits the world playing revolutionary melodies. However, since no trace of the satellite or melodies has ever been found, it is assumed that the launch was a failure. Also, back in April of this year, North Korea successfully launched another satellite, either into orbit or the Pacific Ocean, depending on which source one counts on for reliable news. North Korea claims that the satellite is even now transmitting the "Song of General Kim Il-sung" and "Song of General Kim Jong-il" to the entire Earth. However, U.S. Northern Command tells a different story, saying, "Stage one of the missile fell into the Sea of Japan. The remaining stages along with the payload itself landed in the Pacific Ocean."

Both launches from the North were viewed as hostile acts by the United Nations, actually demonstrating North Korea's long-range missile capabilities, rather than actually launching a satellite. In contrast, South Korea's satellite program has been public knowledge for at least seven years. Both of North Korea's missile launches were relative surprises. South Korea's satellite program was aided by international cooperation, while North Korea's launch violated UN Security Council resolution 1718.

In the larger picture, both North and South Korea can be said to be mirror images of each other in the area of technology. Both countries have had significant technological developments in the past 50 years, but the North has used their technological developments to spread fear and make unreasonable demands on their neighbors. They use technology only to support their bombastic rhetoric, which alone would have been overused to the point of powerlessness already. But they have developed nuclear technology in the form of nuclear reactors that create weapons-grade plutonium, and in nuclear bombs, which they have tested more than once. They have applied their long-range rocket technology to make missiles that are capable of hitting their neighbors and, they claim, some islands of Alaska or Hawaii. And while they have announced twice now that they have launched satellites into orbit, once in 1998 and once this year, they clearly have failed both times.

South Korea also has nuclear, rocket and satellite technologies, but they have taken them in a different direction. South Korea has developed clean nuclear energy, which they use to power 45 percent of their country's total electrical needs. These nuclear reactors do not produce weapons-grade nuclear material, but they do produce almost half of the power necessary to drive the world's 13th largest economy. South Korea already has more than 10 satellites in orbit, put there with the help of other space-faring nations. And this launch of its first large-scale rocket shows that it is more than the equal of its Northern neighbor again. It is not a weapons test, but a test to reach space on its own.

This sharp contrast reminds one of Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken," which begins with three intriguing lines:

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood..."

In the poem, the narrator was sorry he could not travel both and be one traveler. But Korea, divided into North and South, has become two travelers and traveled both roads - two divergent roads of technological development.

While North Korea constantly threatens to turn various neighboring cities into seas of nuclear fire, South Korea is exporting its nuclear power technologies to other nations. While Kim Jong-il launches rockets into the ocean in order to make other nations provide his country with economic aid, Lee Myung-bak launches celebratory model rockets to open Naro Space Center with the help of smiling, well-fed schoolchildren. And while North Korea uses the excuse of launching a satellite into orbit to make its missile tests more diplomatically palatable, South Korea is simply hoping to put additional satellites into orbit to go along with the 10 it already has up there using its own spacecraft.

Of these two mirror-states, North Korea is definitely taking the road less traveled. However, this particular road is full of starvation, want, bombast and a stance of constant war. The South has taken the more popular route, and in this case it has made a world of difference for its people. Nowhere else are the choices more similar and yet opposite; at no other time in history have two countries more obviously illustrated right and wrong.