• Forum
• SITREP
• Military
• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security

• Space

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Public Eye

KSLV-III / KSLV-IV

KSLV-III is the geostationary orbit launcher, to be developed by 2027 based on the KSLV-II Korean booster. KSLV-IV is the larger geostationary launch vehicle, the development of which would be conlcuded in 2033. Of course, there is not much in the way of planning on these vehicles.

Taking KSLV-1 as a stepping stone, Korea launched the KSLV-II program in 2010, which is developing the next version of the Korea space launch vehicle in an indigenous way. In the framework of future cooperation to launch heavier satellites is expected to create rocket KSLV-II and KSLV-III. As of 2007, South Korea wanted to bring the more powerful models KSLV-II (in two stages, 1 ton payload) and KSLV-III (three-stage, 1.5-ton payload) to market by 2015.

KARI planned to conduct two or three space launches per year from the Naro Space Center, and then transfer launch services to the private sector sometime after 2025. KSLV-III will be used for geostationary transfer orbit launch. If a terrestrial launch site is not available near the equator, a sea-launch is an alternative as currently provided by Sea Launch company.

The KSLV-III is a three-stage rocket capable of multipurpose space to display the load on the sun-synchronous orbit. The first launch of the rocket is scheduled for 2017. At one time the first and second stage liquid rockets qwere to be developed in Russia, the third - solid fuel, in South Korea.

South Korea intended to develop a new KSLV-II rocket, 50 meters long, on the basis of national technical solutions. Already they have almost completed development of the engine thrust of 30 tons, and started the preliminary studies of the creation of the engine thrust of 75 tons.

The strategy which is taken in the KSLV-II project is that proven engines are clustered to get more power rather than to develop a new more powerful engine. Due to this strategy, mass production becomes possible, and consequently, design and manufacturing costs are reduced. Once technological independence is obtained through the development of the KSLV-II, it will be much easier to launch a three ton satellite into geo-stationary transfer orbit or a 10 ton satellite into low earth orbit (KSLV-III, not planned yet). Furthermore, the larger size space launch vehicle (KSLV-IV, not planned yet) can handle at least 20 tons of large cargo.

Mission opportunities and trajectory characteristics for the future Korean Mars mission have designed and analyzed using KSIV-III(Korea Space Launch Vehicle-III). Korea's first space center, 'NARO space center' is selected as a launch site. For launch opportunities, the year 2033 is investigated under considering the date of space center's completion with KSLV series development status. Optimal magnitude of various maneuvers, Trans Mars Injection (TMI) maneuver, Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM), Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) maneuver and Orbit Trim Maneuver(OTM), which are required during the every Mars mission phases are computed with the formulation of nonlinear optimization problems using NPSOL software. Finally, mass budgets for upper stage (launcher for KSIV-III and spacecraft are derived using various optimized maneuver magnitudes.

For results, daily launch window from NARO space center for successful Korean Mars mission is avaliable for 27 minutes starting from Apr. 16. 2033. 12:17:26 (UTC). Maximum spacecraft gross mass which can delivered to Mars is about 206kg, with propellant mass of 109kg and structure mass of 97kg, when on board spacecraft thruster's Isp is assumed to have 290 sec. For upper stage, having structure ratio of 0.15 and Isp value of 280 sec, gross mass is about 1293kg with propellant mass of 1099kg and structure mass of 194kg. However, including 10% margins to computed optimal maneuver values, spacecraft gross mass is reduced to about 148kg with upper stage's mass of 1352kg.

KSLV-III

KSLV-4 / KSLV-IV

The KSLV-4 rocket has 27 x 75 ton engines - the Korean version of Falcon Heavy. KSLV-IV can be launched from the same launch site as KSLV-III with some upgrades. If the development of the KSLV-III and the fourth-generation launcher proceeded according to plan, KARI would also build a third and a fourth launch pad at the space center.