South Korea launches homegrown space rocket in second such attempt

If the launch is successful, South Korea would become the world's 10th nation to place a satellite into space with its own technology

South Korea launched its first domestically built space rocket on June 21 in the country's second attempt, months after its earlier liftoff failed to place a payload into orbit.

A successful launch would boost South Korea's growing space ambitions but also prove it has key technologies to build a space-based surveillance system and bigger missiles amid animosities with rival North Korea, some experts say.

The three-stage Nuri rocket carrying what officials call a functioning “performance verification” satellite blasted from South Korea's only space launch centre on a small island off its southern coast at 4 p.m. Live TV footage showed the rocket with a national flag rising into the air with bright flames and above thick white smokes.

Officials are to announce the results of the launch later Tuesday.

In the first attempt last October, the rocket's dummy payload reached its desired altitude of 700 km (435 miles) but didn't enter orbit because the engine of the rocket's third stage burned out earlier than planned.

If Tuesday's launch is successful, South Korea would become the world's 10th nation to place a satellite into space with its own technology.

South Korea, the world's 10th-largest economy, is a main supplier of semiconductors, automobiles and smartphones on world markets. But its space development programme lags behind that of its Asian neighbours China, India and Japan.