South Korea Planning June Satellite Launch

A new Russian-made first stage booster manufactured by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center is arriving in South Korea to boost an attempt by the nation to place the first satellite in orbit in June 2010.

Last August, South Korea made an unsuccessful attempt to place the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), in orbit, but it fizzled after one of the two fairings failed to detach. Officials called the launch “half successful.” More from Spaceflight Now.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute and the Naro Space Center, 485 kilometers south of Seoul, has been been recently documented in the comprehensive book Emerging Space Powers: The New Space Programs of Asia, the Middle East and South-America by Brian Harvey, Henk H. F. Smid, and Theo Pirard.