South Korea conducted its first successful launch of the KSLV-1 vehicle at 0700 GMT on 30 January. The rocket was carrying the STSAT-2C scientific satellite and early reports indicate that the satellite was deployed successfully. The KSLV-1 rocket is a collaboration between South Korea and Russia. Russia supplied the first stage of the rocket with South Korea supplying the upper stage. This rocket had two previous falures in 2009 and 2010, and this vehicle had two aborted attempts to launch in October and November 2012.
While this launch was successful it will also be the last for KSLV-1. The original agreement between South Korea and Russia was to conduct two launches, but when those launches ended in failure it was agreed to conduct one further launch. South Korea will now concentrate on creating the KSLV-2 rocket which is planned to be built solely in South Korea.
