Korea`s 1st Space Rocket Set for Launch Wed.

The country’s first space rocket Naro, or the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, is set for launch Wednesday.

The rocket will shoot the 100-kilogram Science and Technology Satellite 2 to 306 kilometers in the air in nine minutes. The two-stage rocket will carry a liquid-fuel engine using kerosene and liquid oxygen and solid-fuel engine.

State-of-the-art electronic devices are also equipped to control aviation and communicate with the earth.

Naro is the result of the latest technology in mechanical, electronic and material engineering. A successful launch will make Korea the world’s 10th nation to launch a home-made satellite from its own territory.

A liquid-fuel lower part and a solid-fuel upper part will help the rocket overcome gravity and leave the atmosphere. The liquid-fuel part will play the pivotal role in sending the 140-ton Naro into space. The liquid-fuel lower part developed by Russia’s Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center has a thrust of 170 tons.

A liquid-fuel engine usually uses kerosene, liquid hydrogen, Dimethylhydrazine and methane. Naro’s liquid-fuel lower part uses kerosene, which is also called as RP1, as its fuel and liquid oxygen for oxidation.

The kerosene used in the rocket is specially refined to burn explosively inside the engine. Its energy level is equivalent to that of gasoline, and kerosene is widely used in liquid-fuel engines.

Kwon Se-jin, an aerospace engineering professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, said, “Kerosene engines have been widely used in the U.S., Russia and Europe. They have both strengths and weaknesses. Yet kerosene engines are relatively stable compared to unstable hydrogen engines or toxic methane hydrazine engines.”

kunta@donga.com