Nose fairing malfunction caused S. Korea's first rocket launch mishap: experts

By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, Nov. 5 (Yonhap) -- The partial failure of South Korea's first rocket
launch earlier this year was caused by problems in the nose fairing assembly, an
independent panel of experts said Thursday.

The seven-person civilian panel said it had reviewed all data collected during
the launch of the 140-ton Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) on Aug. 25 and
confirmed that other systems on the rocket functioned normally.
The KSLV-1 also called Naro-1 was jointly developed with Russia and was designed
to place a 100kg scientific satellite into low Earth orbit. The rocket lifted off
successfully from the Naro Space Center 485km south of Seoul, but the satellite
did not gain proper orbital velocity that caused it to fall back to the Earth
shortly after takeoff.
"Failure to place the scientific satellite into orbit was caused by 'abnormal'
separation of one fairing cover," a report compiled by experts said.
It said detailed analysis of possible causes and land-based tests raised two
possibilities for the failure.
"In the first scenario, the explosives used to separate the two nose farings from
the rocket exploded on time at 216 seconds after blastoff, yet unexplained
mechanical problems caused one fairing to stay attached for another 324 seconds,"
the findings said.
"Another possibility involves only one of the explosive charges going off on
time, while the second detonated 540 seconds into the flight just before the
satellite separated from the rocket," it said.
The panel said it will conduct more simulations to determine the exact reason for
the fairing malfunction with a conclusive ruling to be made by year's end.
It, in addition, said engineers are trying to determine an unexplained hike in
temperatures detected by sensors on board the second stage rocket just as the
first nose fairing was ejected.
The report by the panel headed by Lee In, an aerospace engineering professor at
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, supports the preliminary
assessment of a fairing malfunction made by the state-run Korea Aerospace
Research Institute (KARI) the day after the launch.
KARI is responsible for the Naro-1 project and worked with Russia's Khrunichev
State Research and Production Space Center to make the two-stage rocket.
The first stage rocket was made in Russia with the second stage, including the
fairing assembly and the satellite being manufactured in South Korea.
The government, meanwhile, said that efforts are underway to prepare for the
second launch of the Naro-1 rocket in the first half of 2010.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
(END)