South Korea launched a rocket carrying a satellite meant to study climate change Thursday, but the mission was immediately thrown into doubt when authorities lost communications with the craft, according to AP. The rocket was launched after a one-day delay due to malfunctioning firefighting equipment near the launchpad at the coastal Naro space center in Goheung, 290 miles (465 kilometers) south of Seoul. The rocket lifted off sucessfully Thursday, loaded with an observation satellite for studying global warming and climate change, but aerospace officials lost contact with the rocket 137 seconds later, the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute said. «We will seek ways to find the satellite,» Lee Joo-jin, head of the space agency told reporters, without elaborating. The blastoff at the coastal Naro space center in Goheung, 290 miles (465 kilometers) south of Seoul, was the country's second launch of a rocket from its own territory. In the first attempt last August, the satellite failed to go into orbit because one of its two covers apparently failed to come off after liftoff. Since 1992, South Korea has launched 11 satellites from overseas sites, all on foreign-made rockets. The first stage of the two-stage Naro rocket was designed and built by Russia and the second by South Korea.
