South Korea prepares to launch 1st homegrown space rocket

The KSLV-II -- also known as Nuri -- is set to blast off from the Naro Space Center in the country's southern coastal village of Goheung at 5 p.m., one hour behind schedule, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT, Yonhap reported.

Yong Hong-taek, the first vice minister at the Ministry of Science and ICT, told a press briefing that engineers spent "additional time checking valves inside the launch vehicle."

The 200-ton Nuri is intended to put a 1.5-ton dummy satellite into orbit, a space launch vehicle technology that South Korea has been seeking to acquire for more than a decade for its space programme.

If successful, the Nuri rocket will be South Korea's first space vehicle wholly designed and built in the country.

The planned launch comes amid tensions over North Korea's test-firing of a new submarine launched ballistic missile (SLBM) on Tuesday, the latest in a series of missile launches by the North.

Nuri's success or failure can be determined in around 30 minutes after liftoff, officials at KARI said.

The success rate for newly developed rockets at first attempt is 30 percent to date, they added.

South Korea's rocket launches ended in failures in 2009 and 2010.

In 2013, South Korea successfully launched its first-ever Naro space rocket, though its first stage was built in Russia.

South Korea has invested nearly 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) in building the three-stage Nuri since 2010.

The three-stage Nuri rocket uses a clustering of four 75-ton liquid engines in its first stage, a 75-ton liquid engine in the second stage and a 7-ton liquid engine in the third stage.

A successful launch would make South Korea the seventh country in the world to have developed a space launch vehicle that can carry a more than 1-ton satellite, after Russia, the United States, France, China, Japan and India.

It would also mean South Korea will now have secured the key technology for developing and launching space rockets carrying homegrown satellites, opening up a new era in the country's space programme.

South Korea, a relative latecomer to the global space development race, has recently ramped up efforts in its space program, with plans to launch its first lunar orbiter next year.