S. Korea's Nuri rocket deploys 14 out of 15 satellites

SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's homegrown space rocket, Nuri, successfully blasted off on Wednesday but failed to deploy one of its 15 onboard satellites into orbit, the aerospace authorities confirmed, correcting an earlier announcement that all payloads were delivered.

The three-stage liquid-fueled rocket, officially known as Korea Space Launch Vehicle (KSLV)-II, lifted off at 12:25 p.m. local time (0325 GMT) from the Naro Space Center in Goheung, about 400 km southwest of the capital Seoul.

While the first stage, payload fairing, and second stage separated flawlessly, the subsequent tracking data revealed a minor anomaly during the final satellite ejection phase.

Around 12 minutes and 30 seconds after liftoff, Nuri's third-stage engine shut down to initiate a highly sophisticated sequential satellite deployment at its target altitude of 575 km.

The main mission of Nuri's fifth launch was to safely deliver five New-space Earth Observation Satellite Constellation for National Safety (NEONSAT) microsatellites, which were successfully released one by one at intervals of 35 to 40 seconds.

It represented a major advancement in complexity from the fourth launch, which carried a single primary payload.

To prevent mid-space collisions, the rocket's upper stage was rotated by 30 and 60 degrees between each release.

However, a glitch occurred during the subsequent release of 10 smaller academic and commercial CubeSats, which were scheduled to be ejected in pairs at 10-second intervals.

The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) corrected its initial statement, saying nine out of the 10 CubeSats were confirmed to have separated.

Nuri will perform a series of post-mission maneuvers to prevent collisions before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere and burning up.