Putting my meeting with the Minister of Science and ICT behind me, I asked for a separate audience with Dr. Kim Seokhun, KARI’s foremost troublemaker. It was because, the moment I saw him, fragments of memory inside me had begun to stir.
If my memory served me right, each nation’s competitiveness in space improved in the order they developed “reusable launch vehicles.” After the United States came China, and after China came India, as far as I knew, in succeeding at commercializing reusable launch vehicles. And from the moment each country reached that singularity, their space technology advanced by leaps and bounds.
Looking at it that way, perhaps cost-effectiveness was the greatest technological prowess in any industry.
If you used reusable launch vehicles, the unit cost of rockets went down; the more it went down, the more you could launch; and the more you launched, the more data accumulated, raising the overall level of technology.
“I must have startled you, coming to see you out of the blue.”
“Not at all.”
“Let me introduce myself properly. I’m Lee Sejun, team leader at the pension fund.”
“Yes, I’m Dr. Kim Seokhun, head of Nuriho Launch Vehicle Team Three. To tell you the truth, I’ve heard a great deal about you, Team Leader. I’m the one who should be grateful that you asked to meet.”
“…You know about me?”
“How could I not know someone personally escorted by the Minister of Science and ICT? In fact, this fifth Nuriho launch uses a great deal of Russian technology. More precisely, they’re domestic parts made with technology transferred from Russia. Your name is already famous throughout KARI.”
I scratched my head with an embarrassed look.
To be honest, in this fifth Nuriho, I had probably developed at least a motor or two myself.
Originally, the fifth Nuriho had aimed to put a 1.5-ton payload into low orbit, but due to various technical circumstances, the payload weight had to be reduced. But about a year ago, a brown bear had suddenly appeared, offered various technical assistance, and vanished.
Thanks to that, there was no need to adjust the target, and we were also able to increase the proportion of domestically produced parts.
In truth, the reason we spent hundreds of billions of our own money on a rocket that we could have outsourced to SpaceX for around seventy billion won was precisely to secure those domestic parts and reduce external dependence. In that regard, we had already achieved our goal.
“But why did you ask to see me separately…”
“There’s something I wanted to ask you, Doctor. What level is Korea’s reusable launch vehicle technology at right now?”
He smiled bitterly.
“It seems you saw me getting chewed out by the director…”
“That’s not the only reason. Actually, I share a similar view to yours, Team Leader.”
“A similar view, you say…?”
“To obtain data, you ultimately have to conduct a lot of experiments. So reducing the cost of those experiments naturally means improving technological capability. I also believe the development of reusable launch vehicles, which can drastically cut the unit cost of rockets, is absolutely necessary.”
After those words, a long silence settled between us.
Damn it… Did I act like too much of a know-it-all? Did a humanities major who didn’t even know the first thing about space ask too recklessly?
“I’m sorry, Doctor. Of course, I’m a complete outsider in this field…”
“No, that is an extremely sound point!”
“…Pardon?”
“Do you have to be an industry expert to forecast the future of semiconductors? What matters more than technical insight is the insight to see the future. Team Leader, you’re right. Your judgment is outstanding!”
No sooner had he finished speaking than he began firing off words like a machine gun.
“It’s frustrating! Originally, the cost per rocket was about four hundred million dollars, and NASA even launched rockets worth 1.5 billion dollars. But the rockets SpaceX launches cost sixty million dollars—the unit cost is almost one-tenth. All of this is a cost revolution that happened after reusable launch vehicles!”
“I-is that so?”
“Yes. Do you know how many rockets SpaceX has launched since reusable launch vehicles appeared? About one hundred and fifty last year alone! After the Falcon appeared, they were launching nearly ten a month!”
“Um, Team Leader… first, please calm down.”
“What scholar could stay calm in the face of this data? Korea gathers its capabilities at the national level and launches one every three or four years, while an American private company launches dozens. Then isn’t it obvious what the most urgent problem is at its root?!”
I could understand a little of the indignation that had made his eyes roll back.
It was overwhelming. After the advent of the Falcon 9, a reusable launch vehicle, SpaceX began sending up dozens of probes and rockets. Recently, that figure had surpassed three digits, and these days they were launching ten a month.
Compared to any other country, it was overwhelming.
China, in second place, had mobilized its national capabilities to launch around ninety, while in the United States a single private company had launched one hundred and fifty.
And naturally, that solidified into a market monopoly.
At present, Korea and every other country outsourced their major space projects to SpaceX, but the volume was so enormous that now one had to take a number and wait.
“It’s the unit cost! If launch vehicle budgets were still hundreds of millions of dollars like before, even SpaceX could never have launched one hundred and fifty. So the main goal of our space development shouldn’t be whether we put up 1.5 tons or 3 tons, but how we can build a reusable launch vehicle. Once we secure that technology, increasing payload weight is only a matter of time!”
When his bout of grumbling finally ended, I asked carefully.
“Doctor, then how far has Korea come at present?”
He, who had been speaking with such passion, shrank back slightly.
“To be honest, we’re still short…”
“How short?”
“I’ll put it simply. To use a reusable launch vehicle, you have to switch from kerosene to a methane engine, and we’ve succeeded up to that point. Our launch vehicle can go up with the payload and complete first-stage separation. However…”
“However?”
“The real core begins from there. We have not succeeded in landing the separated launch vehicle again.”
According to his explanation, that re-landing was the most difficult part.
To a humanities major, it seemed like an extremely simple technology—just go up and come back down like a helicopter—but apparently STEM people saw things differently. Even the engineers of India and China, who had succeeded in lunar probes, had yet to reach this level of technology.
“Well, to be honest, I understand the director’s position too. Since it isn’t perfect yet, he must be reluctant to use a reusable launch vehicle as the first stage. With fifty million citizens watching, he wouldn’t want to turn it into fireworks.”
“It seems you’re still lacking quite a bit…?”
“Yes. The launch vehicle currently scheduled uses the same kerosene engine as the fourth launch, so it should succeed smoothly just like back then.”
“And you want to test it with the newly made methane engine stage, Doctor?”
“Yes. But in truth, the methane engine we developed this time has various unstable factors, so I’m afraid to put it into the field. If we launch with the old model, the experiment is practically guaranteed to succeed at 99%, but if we launch with the methane engine stage, that probability drops to nearly half.”
“You mean it might explode before it even separates…?”
“Yes. That’s why the director won’t allow it.”
He smiled bitterly and said,
“But I think I’ll just give up. The director has his own position to consider. We barely managed to secure the space budget, and all that’s left is to earn the public’s recognition. He wouldn’t want to ruin the entire festival by adding an unnecessary reusable launch vehicle test.”
“Have you given up?”
“What else can I do? There are all sorts of circumstances. Still, after saying this to you, Team Leader, I feel much lighter. If I have one request, it would be for you to explain these circumstances to the owners of the defense companies. Even if we step back this time, I truly want to test it in the next launch, or the one after that.”
I said to him,
“Then why not just do it this time?”
“Pardon?”
“You’re saying you want to launch it with a methane engine instead of a kerosene engine. Since the old model’s success was already confirmed in the fourth test, you want to try a reusable launch vehicle test this time too.”
“That’s true, but…”
“I’ll try to lend a hand.”
“P-pardon?”
“Doctor, let’s do it this time. I’ll try to persuade them.”
As the old saying goes, if you spread out the mat for someone, they suddenly can’t do what they were already doing.
When I egged him on from the side, he instead looked greatly flustered.
*
“It’s been a while.”
“Yes, Prime Minister! Have you been well?”
“I’ve been getting by just fine. What about you?”
“Thanks to you, I’ve been well. But you look much better than when I last saw you.”
“You’ve been getting better and better at flattery lately, haven’t you? It’s not as if I have anything left to give you now. Hahaha. In any case, thank you. You seem to be looking quite well yourself. Are you seeing someone?”
Lee Chanho, whom I had asked to meet after a long time, looked bright.
Bearing the title of longest-serving prime minister, he was now preparing to step down. Within the party, fierce factional fighting was taking place over the next nomination rights, but he and the president did not interfere much. Another page of history was now drawing to a close.
“Prime Minister, you must be very busy these days. Thank you for making time for me.”
“Busy? Now that my string’s about to be cut, no one comes to see me anymore. Anyway, what brings you here?”
“It’s about the Nuriho, Prime Minister.”
“The fifth launch?”
“Yes. I have a good proposal related to it, and I wanted to tell you about it personally.”
Lee Chanho read through the documents I handed him for quite some time.
I waited for a long while with a tense expression. It was a difficult matter. It was a matter that required a decision. For the Blue House, which wanted to retire as quietly as possible, this was hardly welcome news.
When that long review finally ended, he pushed up his glasses and said,
“An interesting proposal. Of course, I’m a complete outsider in this field, but in any case, you want to try a new experiment?”
“Yes, that’s right. Our research team says they’ve made a methane engine for the first time, and they want to use it in this experiment. They’re highly motivated.”
“Good. That’s a good thing. Motivation is always good. Without a spirit of challenge, nothing can be achieved. Mm… But you see.”
Lee Chanho smiled bitterly.
“Team Leader Lee, you’ve always been an ambitious person, so I understand, but the world doesn’t always work that way. Back when the Naroho failed, the whole country mocked it as fireworks worth hundreds of billions of won. Honestly, this is a burden at the administration level too. If it fails by any chance, a whistleblower will pop up, won’t they? They’ll say it was an experiment that could have succeeded one hundred percent, but the government interfered and made it fail.”
“We still have two months. Time to persuade the public why we have to conduct this experiment, and what meaning it has even if it fails.”
“You may persuade the public, but you won’t persuade the opposition party. Whatever it is, if it ends in failure, the opposition will use it for political strife. Are you telling the administration to bear that risk?”
As expected, the conversation was not going smoothly.
I understood. It was easy to say, but where was there a society that readily tolerated failure? Especially in politics, every issue was fodder for conflict.
In the end, I pushed a bag stuffed full of cash toward him.
“Prime Minister… please bear it just this once. The scholars say it’s a technology we absolutely need.”