Naro Space Center

Naro Space Center (나로우주센터) is South Korea's only orbital launch facility, operated by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and located in Goheung County, South Jeolla Province, on the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula at approximately 34.4°N latitude. The center opened in 2009 and has hosted all of South Korea's orbital launch attempts, representing the physical embodiment of Korea's ambition for indigenous space launch capability.

Naro Space Center's name derives from the nearby island of Oenaro-do. The site was selected for its location on the southern coast with open ocean to the south and east, providing safe downrange trajectories for Korean-launched vehicles without overflight of populated areas. The facility includes launch pads, a rocket assembly building (Naro Space Center Launch Complex), mission control, propellant storage, and range safety infrastructure.

The center first hosted the KSLV-1 (Naro) rocket — a two-stage vehicle using a Russian-supplied first stage from Khrunichev paired with a Korean-developed solid second stage — which had two failed launch attempts (2009, 2010) before successfully orbiting a payload in January 2013. The partnership with Russia's Khrunichev for the KSLV-1 first stage was controversial domestically as it limited Korean sovereignty in the program, motivating KAERI's subsequent development of fully indigenous launch capability.

The major milestone at Naro was the development and launch of KSLV-II (Nuri, 누리호) — Korea's first fully indigenous three-stage liquid rocket, using four 75-ton thrust liquid engines on the first stage. Nuri's maiden flight in October 2021 partially succeeded (failed to achieve orbit on the third stage), with its second flight in June 2022 successfully placing a payload in orbit — marking South Korea as the world's seventh nation to independently orbit a payload on a domestically developed rocket. Subsequent Nuri launches have carried Korea's next-generation Earth observation satellites. Naro Space Center is now developing next-generation launch infrastructure for KSLV-III, a planned medium-lift successor to Nuri.