This was reported by the country’s state space institute on Tuesday, Ukrinform reported, citing Yonhap.

“The launch management team will be formed at the end of March and Nuri will launch in early May as planned. “We think we’re ready to complete the mission if the government announces a third launch,” Choi Hwang-seok, who is responsible for the Nuri project at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, said at a press conference.

He said a government meeting will be held later this week to review the development of satellites to be loaded on the space rocket, as a first step towards launching in May.

The upcoming launch follows Nuri’s second successful launch in June last year.

The 200-tonne Nuri, also known as KSLV-II, successfully completed its flight after launching from the Naro Space Center in the country’s southern coastal city of Gohen, placing the satellites at a target altitude of 700 kilometers as planned.

This was its second launch after the rocket failed its first attempt in 2020, when it successfully reached a target altitude of 700 kilometers, but failed to launch a satellite mock-up because its third-stage engine burned out sooner than expected.

Photo: “Yonhap”