South Korea’s fourth space rocket launch successful, sends satellites into orbit

(Reuters) -South Korea successfully launched its fourth homegrown space rocket Nuri on Thursday and put more than a dozen satellites into orbit, a live stream on YouTube by Korea Aerospace Research Institute showed, marking the country’s first launch jointly conducted with a private company.

South Korea started the Nuri rocket programme in 2021, but in the latest launch local company Hanwha Aerospace led the manufacturing and assembly of the rocket, using technology transferred from the government.

(Reporting by Heejin Kim in Seoul, Hyunsu Yim in Barcelona and Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru)