Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea’s new satellite launch rocket burst into a fireball minutes after takeoff before falling into the Yellow Sea. But experts say the attempt showed new progress in the nuclear-armed country’s space race. North Korea said in a statement that its latest attempt to launch a military reconnaissance satellite failed in flight on Monday during the first stage of the rocket, which used a new liquid oxygen and petroleum engine. An initial investigation revealed that the new cause of the explosion was the liquid-fuel rocket motor. While other possible causes are being investigated.
A report by state media KCNA said it was most different from the Chollima-1 rocket used in the successful satellite launch in November 2023. However, state media did not name the rocket or release pictures of it. Experts said Chollima-1 also suffered several explosions before its success. Chollima uses hypergolic fuel. These are substances that can be stored at room temperature, but ignite when they come in contact with each other. Which requires careful arrangements.
US officials and independent experts said the Chollima-1 appeared to be based on systems developed for North Korea’s nuclear-powered intercontinental ballistic missiles, which do not typically use liquid oxygen because of the cold temperatures needed for storage. Lee Choon-gyun, an honorary research fellow at South Korea’s Science and Technology Policy Institute, said the petroleum fuel and liquid oxygen engine indicated Russia may have helped develop it.
He said that even though it was a failed launch, it is a big leap. He said that some of South Korea’s space rockets were initially developed with Russia decades ago and use similar technology. Russia is the strongest country to use liquid oxygen-kerosene fuel engines. Our Naro and Nuri rockets have adopted it through technical cooperation with Russia. He said that this is probably the reason why North Korea conducted several successful rocket tests late last year.
Tags: North Korea, Space, Space Exploration, Space news
FIRST PUBLISHED : May 29, 2024, 16:08 IST