North Korea appears to have made progress with its space program despite a second missile failure on Thursday, but the unusually fast pace of launches could cause problems, analysts say.
The country’s second attempt to put a spy satellite into orbit failed after the booster failed in its third stage, state media reported.
The launch came less than three months after the Chollima-1 booster’s maiden flight, and officials have promised to try again in October.
Thursday’s second flight was doomed to what state media called a faulty “emergency detonation system” in the third stage, which analysts say could refer to a self-destruct system often fitted to rockets to prevent large chunks of debris falling from the sky during a flight. accident.
Nuclear-armed North Korea has said it wants a working system of spy satellites to monitor the US and South Korean militaries, and analysts say the Chollima-1 has the potential to be a capable system.
But the short delay between launches suggests Pyongyang may be driven more by politics than operational goals, some observers said.
“The unusually fast schedule suggests that the entire project focused on showcasing Kim Jong Un’s achievements rather than getting an operational satellite into orbit,” said Yang Uk, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies of Seoul.
The first launch of Chollima-1, on May 31, came just days after South Korea put the satellites into orbit for the first time with a homemade rocket, and officials in Seoul suggested at the time that the North Korea hurried to accompany her.
Source: Terra
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