MOSCOW. Aug 25 (Interfax-AVN) - South Korea's first space launch vehicle has been sent into space.
"The rocket has blasted off," Alexander Bobrenev, spokesman for Russia's Khrunichev state space research and production center, which helped develop the South Korean launch vehicle, told Interfax-AVN.
South Korea's KSLV-1 rocket took off from the Naro Space Center. The rocket's first stage was designed by Khrunichev center specialists, using some of the principles behind the first stage developed for Russia's Angara launch vehicle.
Russian specialists helped design the aforementioned space center as well.
Russian specialists worked on the South Korean rocket's first stage as part of the two countries' governmental agreement on cooperation in promoting the peaceful exploration and use of space. Russia and South Korea agreed to work together to develop and build a South Korean space center and the country's KSLV-1 light launch vehicle as part of a contract signed in October 2004.
The Khrunichev center was in charge of designing the rocket's first stage, engines for which were developed and manufactured by the Energomash enterprise. Russia's Vehicle Design Bureau was responsible for designing the Naro Space Center in Goheung County, 485 kilometers south of Seoul.
The launch vehicle's second stage was developed and manufactured in South Korea at the request of the country's Aerospace Research Institute.
The launch vehicle is expected to place a 100-kilogram South Korean satellite into orbit.