Cheollima-1 launch vehicle
The Chollima-1 booster measures around 30 meters in length and 2-3 meters in diameter, smaller than South Korea's Nuri rocket. The first-stage propellant tanks are shorter than that of the Earth observation satellite Kwangmyongsong launched in 2016. The second and third stage propellant tanks are longer. The uppermost part, which is presumed to be loaded with the reconnaissance satellite Malligyong, is thicker than the fuselage.
Shin Jong-woo (Defense Security Forum): They apparently developed larger fairing than multiple microscopic satellites or Malligyong-1 because the size is too big." The launch site is located in a coastal area and there are newly built structures around it. It appears to be a new launch site located about 3km from the Sohae Satellite Launching Station. Lee Jong-seop (Minister of Nat'l Defense (June 1)): "They assembled projectiles on launchers and placed the first, second and third stages. In the new facility, they erect projectiles right onto the launch pad. The two launch pads appear to work differently."
According to Zhang Mingjin, the general manager of North Korea's Sohae launch site, the previous "Unha-3" carrier rocket was 30 meters high, 2.4 meters in diameter, with a launch weight of 91 tons and an initial thrust of 120 tons. The Unha-2 carrier rocket launched on April 5, 2009 (three-stage, 79 tons in weight, 35 meters in length, 2 meters in diameter, 4,000 kilometers in range, liquid fuel engine. The West is called Taepodong-2 missile.)
The Hwasong-17 type is an ICBM of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea that was unveiled in 2021. Van Defen and Michael Ellerman told North Korea website 38 North A that the missile is "approximately 25 to 26 m long and 2.5 to 2.9 m in diameter, which is 4 to 4.5 m longer and 0.5 m in diameter than the existing Hwasong-15 type. m appears to be larger." The Baekdu engine with a thrust of 80 tons has one nozzle. In a photo released by North Korea, four Baekdu engine nozzles are clearly visible in the first stage engine. Since there are four 80 tons of thrust, it seems that the total thrust is 320 tons. The Hwasong-17 serves as the first stage of the Chollima-1 SLV, which unsuccessfully tried to launch a satellite on 31 May 2023 when the second stage booster failed to ignite.
In Korean, Chinese, and Japanese mythology the Chollima is a horse often portrayed with wings. It is either too swift to be mounted or capable of running a thousand ri (400 km/250 mi) per day, giving rise to the expression "rush at Chollima Speed!" Legend states that no man could tame him. The Chollima symbolizes the advance of Korean society at the speed of the Chollima. The chollima is an important symbol in North Korea. It is used as the nickname of its national association football team. The state also gave the name to the Chollima Movement, which promoted fast economic development, similar to that of the Chinese Great Leap Forward and the Soviet Stakhanovite movement.
North Korea's geographical location determines that its rocket launch can only have two options, one is to go east and the other is to go south. The eastward launch must pass over the four islands of Japan, and the political risk is relatively high. Launching to the south is much less risky, and it will not have much impact on the verification of rocket performance (Similarly, Israel can only choose the difficult and inefficient launch from east to west due to geographical constraints. Way).
The rocket carrying the country's first military spy satellite failed 30 May 2023 due to engine problems, DPRK state-run media said, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff detected the launch at 6:29 a.m. on Wednesday, local time, from Tongchang-ri on the country's northwestern coast and it fell about 200 kilometers (124 miles) west of South Korea's Eocheong island.
North Korea's state-run Korean Central News agency reported its "Cheollima-1" satellite launch rocket failed due to instability in the engine and fuel system. It said the rocket plunged into the sea after losing thrust due to the abnormal starting of the second-stage engine. The KCNA said that North Korea is currently analyzing what went wrong and would launch another rocket in the near future.
The National Intelligence Service presented its analysis at a closed-door meeting of a parliamentary committee on 31 May 2023. According to a lawmaker who attended the session, it said the problem may have happened partly because the North set a different, technically difficult flight route from past launches. The lawmaker said other factors include the fact that the North spent only several days preparing for the launch whereas such work usually takes around three weeks, and construction underway at the launch site had not been completed.
South Korea's intelligence agency pointed at the North's decision to suddenly shift the course of the vehicle toward the west, as well as the drastically cut-short preparation process -- as the reasons behind the failure. It also judged the satellite weighs around 300 kilograms, is 1 point 3 meters long, and that it's only capable of carrying out reconnaissance missions. Regarding the regime's plan to carry out another launch soon, the agency says it estimates that it'll take the regime weeks to fix the engine failure unless the defect turns out to be minor.
Seoul's presidential office convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. Members condemned the launch as a "serious provocation" and a violation of UNSC resolutions, that threatens peace on the Korean Peninsula and in the international community. President Yoon Suk Yeol was immediately briefed on the launch and continued to be updated on the situation in real-time.
The launch prompted city officials in Seoul to issue warning to citizens to prepare to evacuate. On Baengnyeong-do Island off South Korea's west coast and located below the rocket's flight path, residents were quickly ushered into shelters as public speakers blasted out warnings for 20 minutes.
The launch also prompted officials to send emergency evacuation messages via text and public speakers all over the capital city, as they initially thought that debris may fall from the sky. Following the chaos, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff identified an apparent part of the North's vehicle and retrieved it for examination.
South Koreans in Seoul woke up to air raid sirens and mobile phone alerts at about 6:30 AM. Residents in Seoul all received alerts from the Seoul City government, telling people to get ready to evacuate. People who received the alert during their morning commute said they were left wondering how to respond to it.
But about 20 minutes later, the country's Interior Ministry sent out another message, saying the alert had been issued in error. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon later apologized for the confusion, but defended the decision saying the alert might have been an "overreaction", but it was "not a mistake".
The launch also prompted warnings on Baengnyeong-do Island, off South Korea's west coast and located below the rocket's flight path. Residents there were quickly ushered into shelters as public speakers blasted out warnings for 20 minutes.
Japan issued evacuation order for residents of Okinawa region. Soon after, a text alert said: "Citizens, please prepare to evacuate and allow children and the elderly to evacuate first" as an air raid siren sounded in central Seoul. "Missile launch. Missile launch. North Korea appears to have launched a missile. Please take shelters inside buildings or underground," said the alert tweeted by the prime minister's office and carried on national broadcaster NHK.
Emergency warnings calling for individuals to seek shelter had been earlier issued for residents in Japan's Okinawa region and Seoul; however, it was later reported by US media that the warning issued for Seoul had been done in "error."
A Japanese government spokesperson said Tokyo has lodged a complaint against North Korea through diplomatic channels in Beijing. He also said that Pyongyang's continued actions threaten the safety and security of the country and the international community.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said on 16 June 2023 that part of the rocket used in North Korea's failed military satellite launch in May had been recovered from the sea. ccording to the report, the South Korean military said the wreckage of the rocket was salvaged from the water on the evening of the 15th local time, adding that it was continuing to search for the remaining parts of the space launch vehicle that North Korea claimed.
The debris found by the South Korean military in the West Sea is presumed to be the second-stage propellant reaching 15m in length. At first it was floating in the sea, but now it has completely sunk to the ocean floor, 75 meters deep. The Joint Chiefs of Staff deployed the submarine rescue ship Cheonghaejin and believed it would take two days to salvage the debris. The South Korean military is tracing the other projectile debris, including the third-stage propellant and the satellite that fell into the body of water in the West Sea that stretches 100km.
South Korea's military ended a search and salvage operation for the sunken wreckage of North Korean second recent space rocket, without discovering anything meaningful. An official from the Joint Chiefs of Staff said on 01 September 2023 that aircraft and naval vessels had been deployed in waters west of the Korean Peninsula, after Pyongyang attempted to launch what it claimed was a military spy satellite, late last month. However, the military concluded the operation on Thursday, saying no meaningful debris was likely to be found. It's widely expected that a self-destruct system, installed on the rocket, may have caused the body to break up into small pieces.
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