South Korea rocket missing

SOUTH Korea launched a rocket carrying a satellite meant to study climate change, but the mission was thrown into doubt when authorities lost communications with the craft.

The rocket was launched after a one-day delay due to malfunctioning firefighting equipment near the launchpad at the coastal Naro space center in Goheung 465km south of Seoul.

The rocket lifted off, loaded with an observation satellite for studying global warming and climate change, but aerospace officials lost contact with the rocket 137 seconds later, the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute said.

It was not immediately clear whether communications could be restored later.

“We will seek ways to find the satellite,” Lee Joo-jin, head of the space agency told reporters, without elaborating.

The blastoff was the country’s second launch. In the first attempt last August, the satellite failed to go into orbit.