Rocket programme to cost NKorea 500 mln dlrs: analyst
Seoul (AFP) April 1, 2009 Impoverished North Korea is likely to have spent 500 million dollars on a programme to launch a satellite into orbit, the head of a state-financed think tank in South Korea said Wednesday. The North has announced it will launch a communications satellite some time between April 4-8, in what the United States, South Korea and Japan see as a disguised missile test. Nam Sung-Wook, director of the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul, based his figure on reported remarks by the North's leader Kim Jong-Il during a summit with then-South Korean president Kim Dae-Jung in 2000. Kim Jong-Il told the South Koreans his country had spent 200-300 million dollars for a project to put a satellite into orbit in 1998, Nam said. The North says that first attempt to place a satellite into orbit was a success, an argument largely dismissed by other countries. "It must have now cost up to 500 million dollars, considering that equipment costs must have risen since then," Nam was quoted as saying by the Yonhap news agency. The North suffered a famine in the 1990s that killed hundreds of thousands and since then has relied on overseas aid to feed millions of its people. Amid rising tensions over the rocket launch, it has refused further US food aid. North Korea's food production will fall more than one million tons short of demand this year, Seoul's unification ministry said in February.
earlier related report "The missile is clearly visible" in a satellite picture taken on Sunday of the launch site, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) wrote on its website. "Since the missile is so easily seen in this image versus in imagery over the past several days since March 24, it is likely that North Korea was previously shrouding the missile." The commercial photos came from the Colorado-based company DigitalGlobe, which provides imagery for Google Earth, US government agencies and other customers. US intelligence and military officials declined to comment to AFP on the satellite imagery. North Korea has said it will send up a communications satellite over northern parts of Japan between April 4-8, but the United States and its Asian allies suspect the launch is a cover for testing a long-range ballistic missile test that could hit Alaska. Pyongyang threatened Wednesday to shoot down any US spy planes if they violate its airspace to monitor the imminent launch, in a statement carried by state radio. The warning followed accusations Tuesday that US planes had stepped up flights over a northeastern region where the North is preparing the launch. Previous photos indicated that the rocket's three stages were about equal in length but the latest satellite image showed that was not the case, and that the nosecone was of significant size, said Geoffrey Forden, a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). "The first stage takes up about two-thirds of the missile," Forden wrote on armscontrolwonk.com. "The third stage appears quite short with a fairly large nosecone fairing." The sophistication of the second stage of the rocket remained unclear, Forden wrote on Sunday. North Korea has warned that the first booster rocket would likely plunge into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) while the second stage would drop into the Pacific between Japan and Hawaii. Related Links Rocket Science News at Space-Travel.Com
Aerojet Completes Engine Tests For NASA's Orion Crew Module Sacramento CA (SPX) May 01, 2009 Aerojet has successfully completed the first series of vibration and altitude hot fire tests on NASA's Orion crew module's 160 lb. thrust mono-propellant rocket engine. |
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