The Nuri rocket, the first domestically produced space rocket, lifts off from a launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Korea, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. (Korea Pool/Yonhap via AP)The Nuri rocket, the first domestically produced space rocket, lifts off from a launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Korea, Tuesday, June 21, 2022. (Korea Pool/Yonhap via AP)SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea conducted its first successful satellite launch using a domestically developed rocket on Tuesday, officials said, boosting its growing aerospace ambitions and demonstrating it has key technologies needed to launch spy satellites and build larger missiles amid tensions with rival North Korea. South Korea, which has the world’s 10th largest economy, is a major producer of semiconductors, automobiles and smartphones. South Korea currently has no military reconnaissance satellites of its own and depends on U.S. spy satellites to monitor strategic facilities in North Korea.

Source: The North Africa Journal June 21, 2022 18:59 UTC