[Nuriho 3rd Launch] Postponed for Now... "Ground Equipment Failure"

Ministry of Science and ICT Press Conference on the 24th at 4:10 PM

The third launch of Nuriho, originally scheduled for 6:24 PM on the 24th, has been postponed due to an anomaly in the ground equipment. It is not a problem with the vehicle itself but with the ground facilities, so a re-launch may be possible the following day.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 24th at around 4:10 PM, Oh Tae-seok, the 1st Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and ICT, held a press conference at the Naro Space Center in Goheung-gun, Jeollanam-do, and announced this. Initially, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) planned to conduct the third launch of Nuriho around 6:24 PM that day. After being transported the previous day, the vehicle was erected and fixed on the second launch pad at the Naro Space Center, and on that day, final inspections and fueling and oxidizer loading were underway. In particular, the Ministry of Science and ICT held a launch management committee meeting around 1:30 PM that day, confirming that the weather conditions were perfect and technical preparations were flawless, and finalized the launch time at 6:24 PM.

However, around 3 PM that day, an anomaly occurred in the ground equipment, causing the fueling and oxidizer charging operations to be canceled. Subsequently, the Ministry of Science and ICT held a launch management committee meeting to assess the situation and decided to cancel the launch scheduled for 6:24 PM that day.

The cause was not the Nuriho vehicle but the ground equipment. According to Vice Minister Oh, it was confirmed that a problem occurred in the system that automatically controls the valve responsible for injecting and releasing helium into the cryogenic tank inside Nuriho. Although the valve itself could be operated manually without issues, a communication error occurred between the computer overseeing the overall launch control and the computer controlling the launch pad equipment. Accordingly, considering the possibility of obstacles in proceeding with the automatic launch procedures that start 10 minutes before launch, the launch was postponed.

KARI is currently mobilizing technical staff from the parts manufacturing company and its own researchers to analyze the cause on-site and carry out repairs and improvements. Since it is not a major problem, they plan to decide and announce whether to re-launch by the next morning after assessing the repair status.

Ko Jeong-hwan, Head of the Korea Launch Vehicle Development Project at KARI, explained, "While inspecting the propulsion system components, a communication anomaly was discovered between the launch control computer and the launch pad equipment control computer. We are currently conducting inspections and repairs, and if everything goes smoothly, the launch could take place around the same time tomorrow afternoon."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.