OREANDA-NEWS. December 4, 2008. KSLV –I ground technological facility qualification tests completed successfully at South-Korean Naro Space Center. The facility is intended for prelaunch processing and tests of the first S.Korea’s light-weight launch vehicle. Korean experts together with Khruinchev Space Center specialists conducted the tests.

A mock–up of the first stage of the KSLV–I booster rocket produced by Khrunichev, was used to perform the tests. This mock–up was delivered to Korea aboard a plane operated by Russian carrier “Polyot” in August.

This work is done under the bilateral inter-governmental agreement on space exploration between Russia and S. Korea signed in October 2004. The agreement defines joint development of the S.Korean space launch complex including the KSLV-I launcher. The KSLV-I`s Stage 1 will be developed by the Khrunichev Space Center while Stage 2 and payload will be designed and built in S.Korea.

The S. Korean customer is the national space agency - the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). The Russian side is represented by the Moscow -based Khrunichev Space Center which has overall responsibility for the project, NPO Energomash (Stage 1 propulsion system) and KBTM which designs the ground facilities.