NURI TO CARRY OPERATIONAL SATELLITE

[Anchor Lead]

South Korea's homegrown rocket Nuri which successfully made its second launch into space last June, is now preparing for its third flight in about 50 days. While the focus has been on verifying the launch vehicle's performance so far, this time, it's planning to carry operational satellites into space.

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The space rocket Nuri, set to blast off in its third launch, is placed on an assembly rail. The launch date is set for May 10. With just about 50 days left, workers attach the rocket's name and logos of participating organizations on the surface of the first stage rocket. As the vehicle will be exposed to an extreme environment, even this process requires special materials and sophisticated technology.

[Soundbite] Won Yu-Jin(Korea Aerospace Research Institute) : "The launch vehicle contains liquid oxygen and stickers plastered on such cold surfaces can immediately come off. So there are many areas we need to prepare in advance."

The assembly of the three stages of Nuri was completed late last year. The remaining task is putting together the three stages and loading a satellite which will be placed into orbit through the launch. A dummy satellite was used in the first launch and a performance test satellite was used in the second. In the upcoming third launch, operational satellites including the "next-generation micro satellite No. 2" will be mounted for the very first time. A weather observation satellite known as SNIPE was initially set to launch carried by a Russian projectile but with the schedule being indefinitely postponed amid the Ukraine war, SNIPE will also be loaded onto Nuri.

[Soundbite] Ko Jung-hwan(Korea Aerospace Research Institute) : "From the third launch, it is less of a development test and more of an actual mission of launching working satellites."

Nuri will be launched four more times including the third one in May as authorities seek to enhance the rocket's credibility through successive blastoffs. Nuri will take off from this launch site where the successful second launch last June was carried out.