Korean space startup, Innospace, announced on Monday that its suborbital test launch vehicle, HANBIT-TLV, had successfully launched from the Alcantara Space Center in northern Brazil.
The 8.4-ton thrust single-stage hybrid rocket was fired at 2:52 p.m. local time on Sunday, and the company is currently verifying the engine’s flight performance and payloads. This launch was the first civilian small satellite launcher in South Korea and a test project to validate the first stage engine of HANBIT-Nano, a commercial rocket capable of carrying a 50-kilogram payload.
Innospace had faced multiple postponements since attempting to launch HANBIT-TLV in December 2021 due to weather conditions and mechanical errors. If the test-firing is successful, Innospace could become South Korea’s first private launch service provider, similar to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in the United States.
The Korean government has also been leading aerospace projects, including the recent launch of the 200-ton rocket Nuri carrying a 162.5-kilogram performance verification satellite in June 2022.
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