South Korea launches homegrown rocket

South Korea has launched its homegrown Nuri rocket, a commercial-grade satellite, for the first time as part of its growing space development program.

On Thursday, officials said, a day after it was forced to postpone due to a technical glitch just hours before lift-off.

South Korea has launched it as rival North Korea is pushing to place its first military spy satellite into orbit.

The two Koreas, technically in a state of war, have no military reconnaissance satellites of their own and both are eager to possess them.

The domestically built three-stage Nuri rocket lifted off from a launch facility on a southern island with a payload of eight satellites, including a main commercial-grade satellite whose mission is to verify radar imaging technology and observe cosmic radiation in a near-Earth orbit.

Science Minister Lee Jong Ho later told a televised news conference that the launch was successful, saying it proved the rocket’s reliability and South Korea’s potential to operate various satellites and explore space.

It marks the third launch of the Nuri, which successfully put test satellites into orbit last year after a failed 2021 attempt saw the rocket's third-stage engine burn out too early.

The three-stage rocket, more than 47 metres (155 feet) long and weighing 200 tonnes, soared into the sky from the Naro Space Center in South Korea's southern coastal region, leaving a huge trail of white smoke.