If you were to ask who the most powerful person in today’s global society is, I think it would have to be Elon Mustin.
Of course, how could a mere businessman beat the president of the United States? But Mustin has a lifetime appointment, after all.
In fact, when the Russo-Ukrainian War broke out, he showed an outstanding presence. When all communications networks were destroyed immediately after the war began, Ukraine had to rely on Starlink to command its operations. Starlink’s strategic value was so important that when he had a sudden change of heart midway through, every Ukrainian operation came to a halt.
The protests that unfolded in Iran were the same.
The fundamentalist Khomeini massacred tens of thousands of anti-government protesters and even cut off the nationwide internet. But Starlink slipped into that gap, and in the end, scenes of the protests inside Iran spread to countries all over the world, making the regime’s control seem meaningless.
If my memory serves me right, Khomeini was killed by the citizens in an even more miserable state than Gaddafi, and none of that would have been possible without network solidarity through Starlink.
Looking at things like that, geniuses really do seem to think differently from the very start.
In 2020, when the internet worked perfectly well all over the world. When the supply networks were already spread out so thoroughly that even most remote mountain villages had internet, why shoot satellites into the sky? Maintenance and repair costs are far higher than cable internet, so who would use Starlink internet...? The ordinary people who thought that have now disappeared.
Judging by the Russo-Ukrainian War, it seems that once a war begins, the manual is to smash the other country’s communication bases first.
Starlink, which could not be destroyed, became another name for a strategic asset.
“Welcome, Team Leader Lee.”
“Yes, sir. It’s been a long time, Minister!”
Lost in such thoughts, I arrived at the Naro Space Center, where the Minister of Science and ICT welcomed me with open arms.
I exchanged greetings with him warmly and glanced around.
With the sixth launch of Nuri about two months away, the researchers at KARI were so busy with their own work that they couldn’t spare any attention for the likes of us.
Well, the budget invested in Nuri so far was around two trillion won, wasn’t it?
It was practically a five-hundred-billion-won missile per launch, so their tension was entirely understandable.
“Let’s not stand around like this. Let’s go to the control center first. Have all the R&D command staff gather now.”
“Minister, aren’t they all extremely busy right now?”
“Even if they’re busy, they should at least greet our Team Leader Lee. A considerable portion of the technology for this fifth launch was transferred from Russia.”
“Then it’s all right. To be honest, even if they explain it to me, I won’t really understand. I’ll greet them separately before I leave.”
The Minister of Science and ICT said with a regretful look.
“Still, after coming all this way, wouldn’t it be a shame to leave without even seeing their faces?”
“You’ve personally welcomed me like this, Minister. What more protocol could I ask for? Haha.”
“That’s true too. To be honest, everyone’s so frantic right now that I felt bad asking them to make time separately. Then follow me. I’ll introduce the general technology to you myself.”
And so I was led somewhere by his hand.
“It’s your first time at the Naro Space Center, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it’s fascinating. It feels like I’ve come to a world on an entirely different level.”
“A lot of people say that. But this isn’t even that fascinating. In two months, a nuclear bomb will go off on that launchpad, and the sight of the spacecraft rising is close to magnificent.”
“Have you seen it many times, Minister?”
“I’ve worked here as a researcher since my postdoc days. I saw it a total of four times up to the fourth launch, and each time was a new experience.”
The Minister of Science and ICT twitched his lips.
With the last, fourth launch of Nuri, we finally succeeded in private-sector-led space development. Originally, the space industry is led by the government (KARI and the like), with companies providing support, but with the fifth launch, for the first time, we succeeded in development where the private sector took the lead and the government assisted.
“I’m looking forward to this one too. How splendidly will the fifth launch succeed?”
I asked him, who was as excited as a child waiting for Santa Claus.
“Minister. I heard that after the fourth launch, our space technology also rose by leaps and bounds. Is that true?”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s definitely more efficient for the private sector to lead than the public sector. I’m realizing clearly why the center of the space industry these days has shifted from NASA to SpaceX.”
Korea had made the system transition at truly excellent timing.
After the last fourth launch, Korea successfully transformed from the Old Space era, led by the government, into the New Space era, led by the private sector.
“Is the difference between the two development methods that large?”
“Of course. In NASA’s case, they have to research various fields, from academic purposes to military, meteorological, and observational ones, so it costs a great deal. But in the case of SpaceX, they can focus development only on exactly what they need, so a strategy of selection and concentration is possible.”
“Then they must have reduced a lot of unnecessary spending.”
“Yes. The fact that it’s easy to fire people is also a major advantage. Usually, people who participate in space development have at least a master’s or doctorate, and on average they’re postdocs, so how could you feed these high-level personnel for life? Since companies lead it, it naturally becomes performance-oriented, and in that process, the talent pool has improved as well.”
In the end, everything is money.
From a company’s perspective, technology advances by leaps and bounds only when it secures as much surplus capital as possible and constantly reinvests it. But that is impossible under a government-led method. You can’t make semiconductors and cars with a civil service rank system, can you?
“This fifth launch will certainly end successfully too. We’ve prepared thoroughly with a far better talent pool and reinvestment in technology than before.”
This fifth launch aimed to place a 1.5-ton practical satellite into low Earth orbit, and the Minister of Science and ICT already seemed convinced of its success. I suppose our talent pool and technological reinvestment had increased that much after the fourth launch?
—Hey, you bastard, how many times do I have to tell you it can’t be done!
While I was pleasantly listening to the Minister of Science and ICT’s explanation, a commotion could be heard from afar.
—Director, then when will we be able to test it?
—Wait. Please, just wait!
—I heard that five years ago too. Are you going to say the same thing five years from now?
—What am I supposed to do when the technology still hasn’t caught up? Reusing launch vehicles is still too much for Korea. Every simplified test we tried failed.
—The re-landing process failed. We succeeded in making landfall.
—Isn’t that the same thing? Dr. Kim, do you know how much budget went into this fifth launch? Four hundred billion won. And you want to turn this weighty event into a fireworks show?
—Then let’s turn off the broadcast and do it.
—Wh-what?
—If you don’t want to show people a failure, then we should do it unofficially.
—Dr. Kim!
—Reusable launch vehicles are that important! In reality, we need to secure this technology first for the launch costs of the next and the one after that to go down, so why are you hesitating?
The Minister of Science and ICT clicked his tongue.
“Tsk, tsk—our Team Leader Kim’s gone wild again.”
“What’s going on...? It seems like someone should go stop them.”
“It’s nothing serious. There’s a man named Dr. Kim Seokhun who’s always singing about reusable launch vehicles, and I suppose he’s on about it again this time.”
“By reusable launch vehicle... you mean that SpaceX technology?”
The minister nodded.
“Yes, that’s right, the Falcon 9 technology. If we succeed, it’s a groundbreaking technology that can reduce launch costs to one-tenth.”
I recalled a scene I had seen on the news.
That shocking scene where SpaceX launched a satellite, and then the launch vehicle separated and returned to a barge.
“If costs drop that much, isn’t it an incredible technology?”
“Yes. In effect, SpaceX’s current technological prowess is thanks to Falcon 9. Because launch costs are lower, they launch more often, and because they launch more often, data accumulates explosively.”
“Then that doctor is right...? Shouldn’t we hurry up and try it too?”
“The problem is that the development costs are at least twenty or thirty times higher.”
The Minister of Science and ICT shook his head with a rueful expression.
A “reusable launch vehicle” is a game-changing technology that all space experts speak of in one voice. Each spacecraft launch costs an astronomical amount of money, and if the launch vehicle can be recovered and reused, those costs can be drastically reduced.
Then with the money saved, more probes can be launched more frequently and accumulated data can be increased, so it could be called an inevitable gateway for the space industry.
But how could such a good technology be achieved overnight?
In 2015, after SpaceX first succeeded in commercializing it, every country devoted itself to this reusable launch vehicle technology, but to this day, the only country that has succeeded in commercializing it is the United States.
“Honestly, for Korea, it’s a story that’s too far away. It’s a technology that even traditional space power Russia, as well as China and India, which have succeeded in lunar probes, have yet to commercialize. And yet we, who haven’t even caught up to them, let alone the United States, are supposed to succeed with reusable launch vehicles?”
“I see...”
“With the fifth launch right around the corner, I suppose our Dr. Kim’s enthusiasm got ahead of him. But it’s a problem that comes up all the time, so don’t mind it.”
Indeed, his words were true.
—You want to do it that badly? Then you and your research team can return your salaries! Let’s use the money saved to try developing it!
Once money was mentioned, the commotion died down as if it had never happened.
“Well, it seems to have been more or less settled.”
“...”
“In any case, that isn’t what matters right now. What matters is the fifth launch. The goal of this fifth launch is to place a 1.5-ton payload into low Earth orbit, and we’re almost at success. In particular, this fifth launch is a technology completed with ninety percent independently developed parts. Our space sovereignty will become much more solid. Haha.”
I smiled bitterly and nodded.
At that moment, my eyes caught sight of a man leaving the room with his shoulders hunched.
It was Dr. Kim Seokhun, coming out after being thoroughly chewed out by the director...
*
“I’m sorry. I don’t think it’s going to work.”
Dr. Kim Seokhun, having returned to the laboratory, said that to his team members.
Since they already knew very well what kind of commotion had occurred in the director’s office today, none of the team members pressed the matter any further.
“I could put up with everything else, but when money came up, even I couldn’t hold out. Damn it, why am I so pathetic?”
“Team Leader, what do you mean pathetic? The fact that you even brought it up was an act of great courage.”
“That’s right. The truly pathetic one is the director. If he’s that worried about the budget, he should be risking everything on reusable launch vehicles all the more, but he doesn’t seem to understand the essence of the problem at all.”
“Enough, enough. If we get caught gossiping behind his back, we really will all be fired. Let’s just curse him in our hearts.”
As if he were used to this sort of thing, Dr. Kim soothed his team members.
Those in charge of the “launch vehicle” for Nuri could be called the best in the Republic of Korea in this field.
They considered the “reusable launch vehicle” an unavoidable destiny, and after painstaking effort, they had succeeded in changing the kerosene fuel to a reusable methane engine.
But what good was a good scenario without a stage?
The research team ran everywhere, trying in every possible way to test the launch vehicle whose current technology had advanced this far, but they were thwarted again and again by the wall called budget.
“Still, let’s keep researching diligently. This fifth launch will definitely succeed. Then for the sixth launch, they might permit a reusable launch vehicle test.”
“Yes, sir!”
Just as they were shaking off their disappointment and about to return to their seats, a knock sounded and the laboratory door opened.
“Hello, Dr. Kim Seokhun.”
“Who are...?”
“Ah, I’m Lee Sejun, Risk Team Leader at the National Pension Fund. Could we talk for a moment?”