Why did a company like SpaceX get into space development?

Hello readers. On May 5, the third launch of the Nuri took place. Before I knew it, a while had passed. It's been a while, but we've received feedback from subscribers who want to cover Nuriho-related content in the Mabu News feedback. The list of topics prepared by Mabu News happened to be related to Nuri, so today Mabu News prepared it with Nuri.

As a reader, did you notice anything different from the previous Nuri launch? For the first time, Hanwha Aerospace, a private company, was involved in the launch preparation and operation process. Hanwha Aerospace, which was selected as a priority negotiator for the Nuri upgrade project in October last year, will participate in the performance upgrade of the Nuri and receive the government's entire rocket technology process. The first step in the transition of the government-led space industry to a private company was seen in this launch. That's where Mabu News wants to focus. Today, Mabu News will begin by asking this question to our readers.

Why are companies jumping into space development?

Rockets, space launch vehicles, missiles... What's the difference? Let's start with a quick glossary!

There are so many different types of guys that have been launched into space. There's rockets, there's space launch vehicles. To help you know exactly what these words mean, let's start with a glossary. First of all, out of the three words rocket, space launch vehicle, and missile, rocket is the biggest concept. A rocket is a vehicle that gains propulsion by reacting by ejecting a substance (fluid) that can flow like a gas or liquid. That's why the water rockets I played when I was a kid got the word rocket. Water rockets spew water and fly with its propulsion, so it's water + rockets.

And within the concept of this rocket, space launch vehicles and missiles are included. So what's the difference between a space launch vehicle and a missile? In fact, space launch vehicles and missiles only differ depending on their purpose, and there is not much difference. A space launch vehicle is a vehicle that carries a payload such as a satellite from Earth to space. If you put a warhead on a shell instead of a satellite, it becomes a ballistic missile. However, the skills required are slightly different. In the case of ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles), reentry technology is essential because they need to go out into space and back to the ground, while space launch vehicles need control technology that can fly parallel to the Earth's surface in order to accomplish the mission of putting satellites into orbit.

History of the Republic of Korea's Space Launch Vehicle

The Nuri, launched in May, is a space launch vehicle. As it is a space launch vehicle made with Korean technology, it has a nice name called a Korean launch vehicle. Korea's space launch vehicle began to be developed in earnest with the establishment of the Aerospace Research Institute in 5. The earliest space launch vehicles bore the name KSR. KSR is an abbreviation for Korea Sounding Rocket, which translates to "Korean Science Observation Rocket". In the past, sound waves were used to observe the topography of the seabed. That's why we use the word sounding when we use the word observation.

In line with the 1990 Daejeon Expo, the Korean Science Observation Rocket No. 1993, KSR-I, was launched in June and September. Both launches were successful at once. Since the KSR-I was the first of its kind, it was developed as a single-stage type. Launched in 6, the KSR-II was developed as a more advanced two-stage type. The KSR-III, launched in 9, used liquid fuel, unlike the previous two launch vehicles. With the successful launch of KSR-III, Korea has secured launch vehicle-based technology that can carry small satellites. With the development of launch vehicle technology step by step, research on space launch vehicles in Korea has been progressing.



After laying the foundation for a launch vehicle to some extent through the KSR plan, we proceeded with the next project with the goal of making a space launch vehicle on our own. It is called KSLV (Korea Space Launch Vehicle), a Korean launch vehicle plan. The launch vehicles like Naro and Nuri, which you've been hearing about in the news lately, are all part of this plan.

Developed from 1 to 1, KSLV-I and Naro are projects to launch a 1997-kilogram satellite into low-Earth orbit. The first and second launches in 2 and 2002 unfortunately failed, but the third launch in 2002 was a success! It was significant that we developed the first satellite launch vehicle in Korea, but there was also a limitation of joint development with Russia. However, through technical cooperation with Russia, an advanced country in space, Korea's launch vehicle technology level has risen to about 2013.100% compared to advanced countries.

And the KSLV-II and Nuri projects were carried out with the goal of launching a launch vehicle on our own without foreign help. The first test launch took place in 2009, but unfortunately it was not a complete success. The second test launch last year was successful, and Korea's name was proudly added to the list of countries that can put more than 2010 ton of commercial satellites into orbit. The fact that it is the 1th in the world after the United States, Russia, China, Japan, the EU, and India! And last month, the Nuri was launched with a satellite to be used, and the mission was successfully accomplished.

Our country did it without a life

I would like to applaud Korea's development of space launch vehicles even more because it is an achievement that has been achieved despite the limitations of a tight budget. The government's space development budget for 2022 is about 2021 billion won, up about 19% from 7. Of course, it is important to keep in mind that the 340 budget is a budget based on the implementation plan, so it may be different from the actual amount of execution this year. 2022 billion won is a lot of money, but it's not that much compared to other budgets. The budget is about 7.340% of Korea's R&D budget. If you look at the ratio of the space industry budget to GDP, it is 2.46%.


I drew the size of South Korea's space budget from 0 to 035. In the late 2005s, it was 2022 billion ~ 2000 billion, and from 2 to 000, you will see that the budget continued to increase. At this time, due to the significant increase in space-related budgets, we were able to accelerate the development of Korean space launch vehicles. But if you look at the ratio of space budget to R&D, it's not that generous. It peaked at 3.000% in 2012 and has been on a downward trend until recently, before rebounding for the first time in 2016.

In terms of sectors, space equipment manufacturing budgets, such as the development of space launch vehicles and satellites, account for more than half of the total space-related budget. The cost of launch vehicles is 2016.3 billion won, or about 91 percent of the total, and the development of satellites is 2022.2 billion won, or about 144 percent. The two areas together are 29%. The remaining 2% includes areas such as the use of satellites, space exploration, and the creation of ecosystems related to space development.


If we compare it with other countries' space budgets, it will be much easier to understand the situation in our country. Let's take the data from 237 and compare it, when the actual budget was implemented. The data was based on the <Government Space Programs> report prepared by Euroconsult. The report lists the top 30 countries in the world's space budgets, but Mabu News compares seven countries that have put more than 59 ton of commercial satellites into orbit.

Of the seven countries, the United States has by far the largest space budget. The U.S. space budget for 41 is $2021.20 billion. Our country is the smallest. At $1 million, it's 7.7 times behind sixth-place India ($2021.545 billion). In the graph above, the size of the bar represents the size of each country's space budget. The ratio of the space industry to GDP is also low. Russia (8.900%) ranks first in this category, ahead of the United States (6.7%), while Korea (900.6%) ranks sixth out of seven countries. The lowest proportion was in the EU, which invests 19.6% of GDP.

If you compare the budgets, you can see how great our country's success in launching the Nuri this time is, right? This is a tremendous achievement on a limited budget, and it deserves to be applauded by all the researchers involved. Fortunately, the 300 space-related budget included in the 2 Space Development Promotion Implementation Plan has been increased to 9.0 billion won. It's still not a lot to compare with advanced space countries, but I hope it will help space development even a little bit as it could surpass 24 and become the largest ever.

From government to private sector

The space industry is one of the big sciences. Big science is a scientific project that requires a huge budget, number of people, and resources. Nuclear development, space science, particle accelerators, and other fields are representative studies of big science. Korea's space industry is also handled by the Ministry of Science and Technology's Giant Public Research Policy Division.

The peculiarity of big science is that it costs a lot of money, but you can't guarantee the results. There's also the risk that the potential for failure is significant. In fact, if we collect only the first launch experiments of space launch vehicles and calculate the success rate, it is only 27%. In the early days of the space industry, there was a huge budget because of the Cold War. With the idea that even if you fail, only your opponent will win, the research was carried out with the two camps, the United States and the Soviet Union, literally pouring huge amounts of capital and human budgets into it. But after the end of the Cold War, we couldn't afford that much funding, so we had to look elsewhere. It was private capital.

Especially under the Obama administration, we started aggressively transferring technology from government agencies to the private sector. We worked on industry-academia-research collaborative projects on NASA technology, transferring the technology and outsourcing it to the private sector. Since then, the number of startups entering the space industry has increased significantly. I'm sure you're feeling it too. At some point, the pivot of U.S. space rocket launches is changing. If NASA has always been at the center of space-related content, then at some point you hear more names from private companies like Space X.


If you look at the graph above, you'll see a surge in space-related companies in the late 2010s. In 2015 alone, 1,043 new companies were founded. Since the early 2000s, companies such as Elon Musk's Space X, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Virgin Group's Virgin Galactic have worked with NASA since the 2010s to increase their competitiveness and reinvigorate the space industry.
In fact, in the past, when the space industry had huge government-led budgets, it was natural to take a conservative approach. As a result, it was less innovative and less radical. But things have changed a lot as private companies have jumped in. Various attempts have been made to improve affordability. One of the most common is reusable rockets. Space X's Falcon 9, the first rocket in the history of space development to be reused, has already been reused 163 times as of June 7. With these reusable rockets, launch costs have been reduced by almost half, allowing the space industry to consider efficiency.

In addition, the point that the space industry makes money was also a point of interest for private companies. In fact, companies don't jump in just by transferring technology, right? It's a company that evaluates whether it makes business sense. The space industry is a high risk, but it's also a high return. It is said that if a private company sells a satellite worth 60 billion won, the profit will be about 15 billion won. That's about a 15% profit margin. Hyundai Motor Company's operating profit margin in the vehicle division in the first quarter of this year is 10%, so it is necessary to sell 2,500 cars of 60 million won to make the same profit as one satellite. As soon as the business was guaranteed, the proportion of private companies entering the satellite industry increased dramatically. Currently, 74.2% of all satellites are privately operated.

(The rest of the story is from the soup)