Korean Space Rocket Ready for Liftoff

Korea's homegrown space rocket Nuri is poised for liftoff on its launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province on Wednesday evening.

It will take off at 6:24 p.m. unless there is a glitch in the last-minute pre-launch checks, in which case an alternative launch date could be set over the next week.

This time the rocket will be carrying eight real satellites with a mission instead of a single dummy satellite like the previous launch last year.

It will be a more difficult task as each of the satellites has to be separated at intervals of 20 seconds to prevent collisions.

The weather is expected to be good for the third launch with no rain and light winds.

Whether the launch is a success or not will become apparent about one-and-a-half hours after blastoff.

President Yoon Suk-yeol will watch the launch from his office in Yongsan, Seoul.