[Satellite TODAY 06-14-10] The Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s (KARI) Korea Space Launch Vehicle 1 (KSLV-1) exploded 137.19 seconds after liftoff on June 10, about a minute and a half before the rocket’s first-stage was supposed to separate from the second stage, KARI announced June 10.
    The Naro-1 was designed in South Korea with cooperative help from the Russian Space Agency, which built the first stage of the two-stage rocket. KARI built the smaller second-stage rocket and the satellite. The rocket was carrying a weather satellite to support South Korea’s Communications, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS) mission.
    Seoul’s Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said South Korea and Russia will form a joint investigation committee to clarify the exact reason for the failure and discuss the possibility of launching a third rocket.
    The South Korean government spent 502.5 billion won ($407 million) since 2002 to build the rocket and learn related technologies with Russian assistance and technical supervision.

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