Yes my friend, I am a space farmer. I grow zero-gravity crystals, harvest helium-3 from the moon's surface, and extract drinking water from asteroids, all for the benefit of mankind. I am a space farmer.
When the UN Security council can’t even bring itself to condemn North Korea for murdering 46 South Korean sailors, that’s sad and pathetic.
Or, as the New York Times puts it, “absurdly, dangerously lame.”
So should the United States put its trust and faith in the efficacy of the UN to enhance the world’s security? In a word, no.
South Korea lost contact with their launch vehicle a little over two minutes into its flight profile and during its first stage burn.
It was to hoist a modest 100kg payload and the launch vehicle itself was similarly modest–we’ll call it old school–with a Russian supplied first stage that used the traditional ‘highly refined hydrocarbon (kerosene) and liquid oxygen as fuel. The second stage was a solid. This is the second consecutive failure.
South Korea, as does SpaceX, knows the challenge of building a space launch vehicle and getting to space. If it was easy, many more would already have done it.
SpaceX achieved success with its Falcon 1 on its fourth attempt and was fully successful on their first attempt with the much more capable Falcon 9 vehicle.
Expect South Korea to be tenacious as well.
UPDATE: The first report from the field is always wrong. Spaceflight Now (via the Korea Aerospace Research Institute) reports the orbital parameters were supposed to be perigee at 186 miles and apogee at 932 miles. CNN relayed perigee may have been missed by almost 35 miles. There may be some data mangling regarding miles and kilometers.
ORIGINAL FOLLOWS:
South Korea’s Space Launch Vehicle-1, AKA Naro-1 (what, even rockets have street names?) has launched. The two-stage booster was jointly built with the Russians (at a reported cost of $400million) and the satellite was domestically produced in South Korean.
It was announced the launch failed to put its satellite into its desired orbit. The Times report says the satellite was an extra 36 kilometers farther from the earth than it should have been.
Since the announced mission of the satellite was to observe the atmosphere and ocean, and those sorts of missions are often polar orbits, it would seem likely the satellite may not be optimally positioned, but a plus 20-mile miss distance should be able to provide plenty of functionality.
However, if it is supposed to be a low-flier, and maybe even a spy satellite, this sort of miss distance may well prevent mission objectives being fulfilled.
Songs of Space & Nuclear War 