【英语国际】韩国“罗老”号运载火箭第二次发射失败

South Korea's second attempt to launch a multistage rocket using its own technology failed Thursday, when the Naro rocket apparently exploded about two minutes after liftoff, officials said.

The rocket, carrying a South Korea-made research satellite, lifted off on time at 5:01 p.m., a day after it was delayed by glitch in a ground-based fire-extinguishing system.

But controllers lost communication with it at 137 seconds after liftoff, when the rocket was at a height of 70 kilometers. At that moment, a camera on the rocket transmitting images back to controllers flared white.

'We assume that was when the explosion happened,' Ahn Byong-man, South Korea's minister of education, science and technology, told reporters at the launch site. 'We think Naro exploded during the first stage of combustion.'

The rocket began falling back into the East China Sea south of the Korean peninsula, and its descent was captured by some TV cameras.

Lee Joo-jin, head of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, said all systems and operations were normal before the apparent explosion.

Last August, South Korea first launched a multistage rocket and reached space with it. But the satellite it was carrying separated from the rocket a few seconds later than planned, overshooting its planned orbit and then failing to stay in space.

South Korea has been building the Naro rockets with help from the Russia Space Agency. Ahn said the country would keep trying, though he didn't set a specific date for a third launch attempt.

韩国官员说，周四韩国利用本国技术发射多级火箭的第二次尝试以失败告终，“罗老”号火箭(Naro)疑似在升空后约两分钟时爆炸。

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周四，“罗老”号在发射后不久爆炸这枚运载韩国自制研究卫星的火箭在当地时间下午5:01准时升空。此前一天，火箭发射因地面消防系统故障而推迟。

不过，在火箭升空137秒钟、进入距离地面70公里的高度后，地面控制中心与之失去了联系。当时，火箭上的一部照相机在发送回地面控制台的图片中呈现出一道白光。

韩国教育科技部长安秉万(Ahn Byong-man)在发射现场对记者说，我们认为爆炸就是在那个时候发生的。我们认为“罗老”号火箭在第一级火箭燃烧过程中发生了爆炸。

火箭开始坠入朝鲜半岛以南的中国东海，一些电视台摄影机捕捉到了火箭坠落的画面。

韩国航空宇宙研究院(Korea Aerospace Research Institute)院长李柱镇(Lee Joo-jin)说，在发生明显爆炸之前，所有的系统和操作都是正常的。

去年8月份，韩国首次发射了一枚多级火箭，并进入了太空。不过，火箭运载的卫星与火箭分离的时间比预定时间晚了几秒钟，越过了预定轨道，之后没能留在太空中。

韩国一直在俄罗斯联邦航天局(Russia Space Agency)的帮助下制造“罗老”号火箭。安秉万说，韩国将继续尝试，不过他没有为第三次发射尝试设定具体日期。