#New york times rocket golf full
#New york times rocket golf verification

If the reaction gets out of control during the first ignition, not only the first stage but also the second and third stages will explode in a chain reaction, causing great damage. The first ignition is the most dangerous. Since the booster engine we use is a high-energy device, an explosive reaction occurs when liquid oxygen and kerosene fuel meet. The night before the launch, I didn’t dream of the engine exploding. An engineer shouldn’t do this, but while walking around the assembly building, I prayed, “God, Mother, Buddha, please make sure this launch succeeds safely.” I’m not religious, but I’ve been to a Catholic church before, and my wife is Buddhist. The Naro Space Center dormitory is located south of the launch site, about 700 meters from the assembly building. Did you sleep well the night before the launch? A. So the launch on June 21 was finally decided upon. We could actually fit a person inside and we were able to replace the sensor. At a meeting the next day, someone suggested that if it was a sensor problem, a person could go into the rocket and fix it without having to separate the first or second stages. A month or two could pass if we had to separate the first and second stages to fix the sensor. I was frustrated at the thought that we couldn’t fire the rocket because of that sensor. But when we checked the electric signals, a sensor error signal appeared. So I was expecting that everything would be fine that day. The next morning, in still cloudy weather, we took the Nuri again from the assembly building and the sunlight shone on the launch pad. I thought that was a good sign. On June 15, the first scheduled date, we had to delay the launch because of the wind. How did you feel when it was delayed twice? A. The launch was initially scheduled for June 15. I feel guilty about saying this but I think it was the happiest day of my life. My wife later complained that I had never given her such a gesture. I drew a big heart with my hands at at my colleagues. I didn’t realize one thing at the time, but later I saw a video recording of that moment. We hugged each other, clapped hands and cried.

#New york times rocket golf verification

And 876 seconds after the launch, at an altitude of 700 kilometers, when the third stage engine stopped and the performance verification satellite was separated, shouts erupted from everywhere, including myself. When the first and second stages went up, it was so tense in the Naro Space Center’s Mission Direction Center that you couldn't hear a single sound. How did you feel about the successful launch of Nuri? A. A huge 2.9-meter (9.5 feet) engine is set up looking towards the sky. The interview with Han was done in his laboratory at KARI. It had been 22 years since KARI started developing rocket engines, starting with the KSR-3, the first liquid rocket with a thrust of 13 tons. The excitement of the launch had not faded, and no wonder.

#New york times rocket golf full

The JoongAng Ilbo sat down with Han for an interview at KARI headquarters in Daejeon on June 24, three days after the successful launch of Nuri, whose full name is the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-II (KSLV-II). The first stage booster engine that Han's team made thrust the Nuri rocket into space on June 21, a major milestone for Korea technologically and in terms of space development. 'This time, I only had one dream two days before the launch - maybe that was a good omen.” The 54-year-old aerospace engineer was head of the engine development department at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). But ahead of the launch on June 21 - the first fully successful one - Han's subconscious cut him some slack. 'It happened during the test launch in 2018 and the first launch last October,' Han recalls. 'A week before each launch, I used to have a dream every night,' says Han Young-min, 'that the engine exploded on the launch pad.' Han was the brains behind the development of liquid-fuel engines for Korea's first domestically-developed rocket, Nuri. Han Young-min, who developed the liquid-fuel engines for Korea's first domestically-developed rocket Nuri (KSLV-II), poses in front of the first stage engine of Nuri at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute in Daejeon on June 24.