Long and Winding Road

The nation’s third attempt to send a first satellite into orbit from its own soil was again delayed at the last minute Thursday.

But it’s too early to be overly disappointed, given that the road to space exploration is long and winding.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said it called off the blast-off of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) rocket, or Naro-1, after detecting abnormal signals from the thrust vector system of its second-stage rocket built by Korea. A KARI official said the system was drawing an excessive amount of electric current.

The rocket was set to lift off at 4 p.m. but the countdown was halted about 17 minutes before the launch time. It’s the second time in a month that Korea has been forced to cancel a rocket launch at the last minute in its ambition to join the space club of nations that have launched satellites from their own land.

On Oct. 26, Seoul canceled the rocket launch due to a damaged seal in the connector between Naro’s Russian-built first-stage rocket and the launch pad. The country’s two earlier attempts to launch the rocket in 2009 and 2010 also ended in failure.

The official launch window is set to close on Dec. 5, but taking into consideration the tight schedule, it is unlikely that it will take place by the end of the year.

The delay may have left many people discouraged but it’s comforting that we can expect a successful liftoff...