South Korea Plans to Build 100 Metric Ton Reusable Rocket

Yonhap News reports that South Korea is planning to develop a new large booster.

Assemblyman Cho Seung-rae, secretary of the Democratic Party of the National Assembly’s Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee, said at a briefing after discussing with the party, “From next year, we have decided to start developing a reusable, high-performance liquid engine rocket with an output of 100 tons.”

Rep. Cho explained, “In order to complete the large-scale space tasks currently being pursued, such as self-propelled lunar landing in 2030 and self-construction of a Korean-style satellite navigation system in 2035, with domestic capabilities, additional development of high-performance liquid rocket engines is required after the Nuri.”

He said, “The high-performance liquid rocket engine to be developed by Korea plans to apply reuse technologies such as multi-stage combustion, re-ignition, and thrust control. We have succeeded in developing various space launch vehicles since the 2010s.”

Accordingly, the government plans to start the ‘Space Challenge’, an advanced development project next year, and has decided to increase the amount by 4.5 billion won next year and 7.5 billion won in 2023, respectively.