South Korea and Russia will hold a second meeting next week to determine why a jointly developed space rocket was lost during liftoff last month, the government said Friday.
The Naro-1 rocket, also called the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), blasted off from a space center on South Korea's southern coast at 5:01 p.m. on June 10, but was lost 137 seconds into its flight.
The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said 26 experts from both sides will exchange views on the rocket's flight telemetry during the five-day Failure Review Board (FRB) meeting to shed light on why the 140-ton, 33-meter-long rocket experienced problems after liftoff.
The meeting, scheduled to kick off Monday, will be held at the headquarters of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center in Moscow. The Russian company built the first stage rocket, while South Korea assembled it.
The ministry said the first FRB meeting, held a few days after the rocket exploded and crashed, allowed both sides to exchange downlink data collected from the Naro-1.
South Korea, which is responsible for the second stage part of the rocket and the satellite payload, said complications encountered took place before the first and second stage rockets separated.
It claimed that the second stage rocket was at a "wait mode" when the problem occurred.
Seoul said that once the probes have been completed and the cause of the failure found, it will ask Russia for a third launch.
Under a pact reached in 2004, South Korea has the right to ask Khrunichev for one more launch if either of the two planned launches fail. The FRB can determine if a launch has succeeded or failed.
"The agreement permits South Korea to ask Russia for one more launch, and Russia is technically bound to respect the request," a ministry official said.
The loss of the rocket made with Russia's support follows the "half successful" first launch of the Naro-1 in August 2009. At that time the rocket reached orbit, but a problem in the fairing assembly made it impossible to deploy the on-board scientific satellite.