South Korea has launched its space task force in a bid to further develop its space capabilities for military purposes. This came after the U.S. approved to lift the restriction on the missile production of South Korea earlier this year.
Defense News reported that the task force will be led by the vice chief or the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA), while members will come from the Ministry of National Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Agency for Defense Development, and other personnel from other branches of the government.
South Korea Aims To Catch Up With Commercial Space Race
DAPA announced that South Korea's space task force will come up with a master plan in collaboration with related organizations and industries to create facilities, technologies, regulations, and industries.
A week before the task force's announcement, DAPA endorsed a plan to invest $13 billion in the next ten years to help local industries develop military satellites and technologies. Seo Hyung-jin, the vice-commissioner of DAPA, said that collaboration between government agencies and local sectors will help further develop space programs.
South Korea can now develop more powerful rockets after the 42-year-old bilateral missile guideline has been lifted. That means they can now catch up in the commercial space sector. In 2013, Space.com reported that the country launched its first rocket to space called the Naro rocket, also known as KSLV-1 that carried a 221-pound (100-kilogram) satellite.
As Defense News reported, the National Space Committee's space development road map shows that South Korea will launch 110 dual-use satellites, which will be used for communications and testing 6G broadband internet. They will also act as observation satellites to monitor the weather.
"The space industry is a cutting-edge industry that's based on intelligence but also a crucial one for national strategy in terms of securing national security and public safety," the news outlet quoted Science and ICT Minister Lim Hye-sook.
Earth's Orbit Is Getting Crowded
Now that South Korea is planning to send satellites to space, it adds to the thousands of satellites already in Earth's lower orbit. Unfortunately, satellites are not the only things that crowd space since space debris or space junks are also causing problems.
According to Voa, scientists and even business leaders are worried about the increasing risks of objects crashing into each other in space. Some insurers of satellites are pulling back or leaving the market due to the increased number of incidents of space debris damaging satellites.
Currently, 42% of the existing 8,055 satellites orbiting Earth are inactive. However, every year, new satellites are being sent to space, wherein much of this new activity comes from Elon Musk's SpaceX company as it continues to grow its Starlink network of satellites.
Starlink's deployment of thousands of satellites proves that current guidelines in space are now insufficient or out of date, including the Outer Space Treaty developed in the 1960s, which is the basis of all space law in all countries.
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