South Korea joins space race in tech drive, cuts ties with Russia
South Korea is preparing a domestic rocket development program as part of an ambitious drive to carve out a larger slice of the global space economy following the implosion of its partnership with Russia.
Seoul last month revoked a contract with Moscow in favor of a European operator to launch a satellite into space. Having relied on Russia for years to send its probes into orbit, the move is a tangible impact of sanctions on the Kremlin over its invasion of Ukraine.
“Our plans to launch a multipurpose satellite with Russia have entirely gone awry,” Korean Vice Science Minister Oh TaeSeog said in an interview. “From the perspective of not only space industries but also national security, owning the ability to lift a satellite we want into space when we want is important.”
South Korea’s breakup with Moscow will be a harsh blow to Russia’s rocket program, one of the nation’s strongest post-Soviet industries outside oil, and highlights the impact of international pressure. Space is also a natural next step for South Korea’s sophisticated economy, led by its high-tech sector.
“Even if the war is over, it won’t go back to the old times,” said Lee Changjin, a professor of aerospace engineering at Konkuk University in Seoul. “I am sure Moscow will try to reenter the market once the war’s over given its large space industry cannot be sustained only with domestic demand.”
South Korea paid Russia about 28.7 billion won ($22 million) of the 59.3 billion won planned under the canceled deal, according to lawmaker Park Wan-joo’s office.
It will likely be too late to regain Seoul as a customer if and when Russia ends the war and sanctions are eased. South Korea launched its first indigenously built rocket in June that successfully placed a test satellite into orbit and is looking into a next-generation vehicle that could carry heavier and more complex satellites without foreign help.
Its sense of urgency to possess a greater spectrum of space capabilities is also picking up after President Yoon Suk Yeol recently announced plans to land a craft on the moon by 2032 and Mars by 2045. That comes after a similar U.S. pledge and China’s lunar plans.
There’s a business goal, too: to increase South Korea’s share of the global space economy to 10% by 2045 from the current estimated 1%. That would require building an ecosystem of space developers from startups to bigger companies with industrial clusters spread across the nation, Oh said.
But South Korea is playing catchup in the rocket business, where it’s competing against the likes of programs in Russia and the U.S., which have been sending satellites into orbit for more than half a century. Neighbors China and Japan have far more experience and North Korea has sent missiles further into space than South Korea has sent its newest home-grown rocket.
South Korea has seen the number of jobs in space industries rise steadily from 6,708 in 2017 to 7,317 in 2021. The government plans to double its annual investment in research and development to 1.5 trillion won by 2027 to further boost the sector, which is currently estimated to be worth about $2.3 billion.