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SKorea to join Asian space race: science ministry
Seoul (AFP) Nov 20, 2007 South Korea on Tuesday announced an ambitious plan to join Asia's space race by launching a lunar orbiter by 2020 and sending a probe to the moon five years after that. The science ministry unveiled the project one month after China launched its first lunar orbiter and two months after Japan did. Its "road map" requires the nation to complete developing its own 300-tonne rocket at a cost of 3.6 trillion won (3.9 billion dollars) within 10 years. "South Korea will send a probe into lunar orbit by 2020 and another to the surface of the moon by 2025 under the road map," a ministry spokesman said. A rocket called the KSLV-II (Korea Space Launch Vehicle) and weighing some 300 tonnes will be ready by 2017 to fulfil the mission, he said, adding that a smaller 170-tonne KSLV-I will be launched late next year. South Korea also plans to launch a large satellite weighing about 100 kilograms (220 pounds) every three or four years, and at least two smaller satellites every year. South Korea is scheduled to open the Naro Space Centre, the country's first, on the southern tip of the peninsula next year. The first South Korean astronaut is scheduled to board Russia's Soyuz craft next April and stay in space for up to eight days aboard the International Space Station. In the past decade Seoul has spent about 1.7 trillion won on its space programme. Japan sent its Kaguya probe into lunar orbit in September in a key step towards putting a man on the moon by 2020. Japan's space agency says the 55-billion-yen (478-million-dollar) lunar probe is on the most extensive mission to investigate the moon since the US Apollo programme in the 1960s and 1970s. China launched its first lunar orbiter, Chang'e 1, in October. It put astronaut Yang Liwei into orbit in 2003 -- becoming the world's third country after the Soviet Union and the United States to do so. Its third manned space flight is scheduled for late 2008, on a mission that will include three astronauts and China's first ever spacewalk. Related Links Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
Moon Rocket Parachute Tests A Success
Yuma AZ (SPX) Nov 20, 2007How do you bring a 200,000-pound rocket booster back to Earth after it catapults its payload toward the moon? Very carefully! It's something NASA has to learn to do. The agency is laying plans to return to the moon in the next decade, and designs for the new Ares moon rocket call for reusable boosters. These massive side-rockets can't just crash back into the ocean when they're out of fuel -- they've got to be lowered gently. |
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