South Korea has succeeded in a ground combustion test for the first- and second-stage engines of its domestic space rocket, a related agency said Thursday.
The 75-ton thrust engine test was conducted "smoothly" as planned a day earlier at the Naro Space Center located in Goheung, South Jeolla Province, according to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.
The 75-ton liquid engine is a core technology for the Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV)-II.
"The duration of combustion was 75 seconds," it said. "We have confirmed that there was no hardware problem through the examination of thermal structural stability after the combustion test."
The KARI plans to extend the combustion time to 140 seconds.
The exact schedule of the next test has yet to be fixed.
In 2013, South Korea launched the KSLV-I space rocket, or Naro-I, from home soil, putting a satellite into orbit. But it depended much on Russian technology.
South Korea is working to develop an indigenous rocket that will be used for a project to land a spacecraft on the moon in 2020.
Earlier, it successfully conducted several 7-ton liquid engine combustion tests for the third-stage engine of the envisioned 33-meter KSLV-II rocket. (Yonhap)
