S. Korea begins dress rehearsal for rocket launch

South Korea started a final systems check on its space rocket on Thursday, a day ahead of its planned launch from a space center on the country's south coast, the government said.

The outcome of the dress rehearsal on the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), also known as Naro-1, will come out at around 11 p.m., according to The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

The Naro-1 was erected and fastened to the launch pad at the Naro Space Center, some 485 kilometers south of Seoul, on Wednesday following its transfer from an assembly complex.

It will be South Korea's third attempt to send the KSLV-1 into space after failed earlier attempts in August 2009 and June 2010.

The ongoing space program, scheduled to end early next year, began in 2002 when the country decided to develop its own means to transport science satellites into space.

A lack of relevant technology, however, forced South Korea to seek help from countries with more experience in space development, leading to a space cooperation pact with Russia in September 2004.

Under the agreement, Russia's Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center built and supplied the first-stage thrust engine of the two-stage Naro-1.

It took nearly 200 South Korean institutes and companies, including the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, to build the second-stage rocket of the Naro-1. The space program has so far cost some 520 billion won (US$471 million).

Regardless of the outcome of Friday's launch, Seoul plans to move ahead with a second five-year space development program that seeks to develop its own main thrust engine.

Under the long-term development plan, the country plans to develop a 10-ton thrust engine by 2016, followed by the development and test launch of a 75-ton thrust engine in 2018. It seeks to launch its first indigenous space rocket in 2021. (Yonhap News)