There were some kids doing science outside on the track/soccerfield/gathering area, with some supervision – although less supervision than would be found for similar activity in a US school. They were launching water and air pressure powered plastic bottles made into rockets. The idea was to see how far and how close to a target at the other end of the field they could get to.
I think they’re going to a science fair at Naju, tomorrow, based on overheard conversations (my ability to figure out what’s going on from overheard conversations continues to improve, but still leaves a lot to be desired – it still requires a lot of context). Here’s the last girl of the evening, launching her rocket – after it occurred to me to take pictures. It flew pretty far, but wasn’t that close to the target.
Korea postponed the launch of its rocket, Naro-II, which, if successful, will be the first successful launch-to-orbit of a satelite by the Korean Space Program from Korea’s new space launch facility. It was supposed to take off yesterday evening around 6 pm, from the Naro space center which is at the southern end of Jeollanam Province. They had an unsuccessful attempt last year (Naro-I). They’re using a combination of Russian heavy-lift rocket technology and home-grown control and satellite vehicle (so, the bottom stage is Russian, the top stage is Korean).
