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First stage of Naro-1 rocket dispatched to S Korea by rail

Within the framework of the project Russian specialists have designed a ground complex for the first South Korean spaceport Naro and participated in its construction

MOSCOW, August 23 (Itar-Tass) — The first stage of the South Korean rocket KSLV-I (Naro-1), which was produced by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre on Thursday was sent to South Korea by rail.

“The loading of the first stage on the train platform, which was dispatched to Ulyanovsk was carried out overnight at the Space Rocket Plant in Moscow,” Khrunichev Centre spokesman Alexander Bobrenev told Itar-Tass. From Ulyanovsk a plane of the Polyot airline will deliver the product to the South Korean port of Busan, and further by sea the rocket will be transported to the Naro space centre.

Within the framework of the bilateral intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, Russia and South Korea have agreed to jointly design and create the South Korean space rocket complex with the light class carrier rocket KSLV-I. The contract on the creation of the complex was signed in October 2004.

The project customer from the South Korean side is the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). Taking part in the project from the Russian side were the Khrunichev Centre (responsible for the development of the complex as a whole) NPO Energomash (the developer and manufacturer of the first stage engine) and the Design Bureau of Transport Machinery (responsible for the development of ground complex project).

Within the framework of the project Russian specialists have designed a ground complex for the first South Korean spaceport Naro and participated in its construction.

The first two launches of the South Korean rocket KSLV-1 in 2009 and 2010 ended in failure. However, according to official data, the Russian stage worked normally.