It’s the 24th, the third launch of Nuri. The final pre-launch procedures were in full swing. At 3 p.m., three hours and 24 minutes before launch, something went wrong. A communication error was detected between the launch control computer and the computer controlling the launch pad equipment. The launch process was immediately aborted. The scientists at the Korea Aerospace Exploration Agency were overwhelmed with anxiety at the prospect of failure. However, they managed to fix the problem within a day and successfully launched on the 25th.
It was the all-night work of more than 40 anti-coincidence researchers that turned anxiety into success.
“The error itself wasn’t a big deal, but I was very worried about whether we could fix it while the launch vehicle was still standing,” says Kang Sun-il, a researcher in charge of the Nuri launch pad, recalling when he first heard about the problem. He joined Hangzhou in 2000 and decided to rely on his experience developing launchers since Naro. All the colleagues involved in the problem were gathered together안전놀이터.
All they had in front of them was a phenomenon called “communication error”. To solve the problem, they needed to find the cause. “We tried to figure out what the cause was and how to deal with it,” says Ahn Jae-cheol, the lead researcher, “and started to test our hypotheses one by one. The team came up with a total of five hypotheses. It was 2 a.m. when they tested the first four hypotheses one by one. There was a discussion on site that the only way to determine the cause was to put Nuri back on the launch pad.
There was no timeline for when they could try again, but then one of the team members raised his hand.
“Let’s go all the way,” said Dr. Oh Hwa-young, “I don’t think we’ll be disappointed if we finish checking the last hypothesis.” “By 3 a.m., the practitioners’ heads were spinning and it was not easy to work,” said Moon Moon-rok. When 4 a.m. rolled around, Jung Hyung-hwan, head of the Korean Advanced Launch Vehicle Complex, who felt sorry for the researchers who had been exhausted all night, said, “Stop and get some rest.” “Unfortunately, let’s get off the Nuri and take enough time to review it,” he said. But the researchers refused to give up, saying, “Just 30 minutes more time,” and “We’ll try one more time.” The deadline was 4:30 a.m. “At that point, the error was miraculously resolved,” says Kang, “and we tested it six times until 5 a.m. and finally confirmed that the problem was resolved.” They had fixed the coding so that the commands between the launch pad and the launch control computer worked properly. The researchers all went back to their dorms, collapsed, and fell asleep. “We were a kind of ‘special forces’ that went in first and came out last,” Kang said.
“It was especially hard this time,” said Ko, who led the third launch, following the first two. “I thought the burden would decrease with each launch, but it didn’t,” he said. “I was worried that all the hard work would be for naught if we failed to launch a practical satellite.” “I didn’t sleep well,” he said. “I didn’t sleep well, so I fell asleep in the evening while having a beer and eating,” he said. The morning after the successful launch, he says, “I woke up and my first thought was about the cube satellite that hadn’t been confirmed yet.”