South Korean and Russian officials will meet to determine causes of a failure in sending a satellite, carried by a jointly developed space rocket, into the target orbit in August, according to local media.
The failure review board will meet in Moscow on Oct. 29, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said on Monday, Xinhua reported.
South Korea launched its first space rocket, the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), on Aug. 25, but the satellite failed to enter its target orbit after successfully separating from its carrier rocket.
Local media reported that during the 10-minute flight, the space rocket underwent brisk two-step separations, and the satellite it carried also ignited and got off the second stage as planned. However, the satellite separation was made 36 km higher than its target altitude.
Experts later found that one of the two firings did not separate from the top of the second stage rocket after launching from South Korea's Naro Space Center.
Disputes remained between Seoul and Moscow over whether the rocket launch was successful.
Seoul said it was only "partly successful", while Russia's Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center insisted it can be called as a success as the main booster rocket, which was made in Russia, functioned properly.
The first stage rocket of the KSLV-1 was made in Russia, while the second stage rocket including the fairing assembly and the satellite was made in South Korea.
Ahead of the meeting, both South Korean and Russian engineers are expected to carry out simulations this week on a duplicate model of the nose fairing, trying to find out why the covers did not fall off, according to Yonhap News Agency.
Despite the disputes, the two countries will continue their efforts to prepare for the second launch of the KSLV-1 rocket in May 2010, the ministry said.
