Seoul likely to set new date for space rocket launch

South Korea will likely set a new date for the launch of its first space rocket Monday after a Russian-made defective part of the rocket made it impossible to send off the rocket last week, officials said.

The Launch Preparation Committee was to be convened at 11 a.m. to decide when the launch of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) will take place.

The rocket, also known as Naro-1, was originally set to be launched Friday, but the launch was called off due to a broken rubber seal in the connector between the launch pad and the rocket's first-stage thrust engine.

South Korea has agreed to send the broken seal back to its Russian manufacturer, the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, to see if the seal is the only problem or if it broke because of other undetected problems, such as a gap between the seal and the part it surrounds, according to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), South Korea's main space program developer.

The process will take at least 4-5 days, it said, which means a launch within the earlier set dates, which ends on Wednesday, will not be possible.

"At today's meeting, the Launch Preparation Committee will review a report from the Flight Test Committee, which was held at the Naro Space Center on Saturday, and discuss future plans for the launch of the Naro-1," KARI said in a released statement.

There are only certain periods throughout the year when a space rocket can be sent into space due to various issues, such as solar activities.

A KARI official said such a time window is only open till mid-November this year.

South Korea's two earlier attempts to send the KSLV-1 into space in August 2009 and June 2010 ended in failure. (Yonhap News)