NK Launch Site Revealed; US Suspends Food Aid

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[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMjxAWX1HRk]NK Launch Site Revealed; US Suspends Food Aid [CNN] - YouTube[/ame]

The site where North Korea plans to launch a long-range rocket has been revealed in images taken by DigitalGlobe, a U.S. commercial vendor of space imagery and geospatial content.

The images, which depict the launch site, were disclosed on Wednesday to coincide with a hearing of the House Committee on Armed Services.

Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Peter Lavoy said at the hearing that the rocket launch could result in casualties in various countries.

Lavoy said North Korea's plan reflects its lack of desire to follow through on international commitments, forcing the U.S. to suspend its activities to provide nutritional assistance to the North.

North Korea claims it plans to launch the rocket to put a satellite into space, but many nations contend the launch could be used to further its ballistic missile technology.

 

[waltky]

I dunno, must be a female rocket - says no dong technology

North Korea’s rocket began life underwater
April 4th, 2012 - If North Korea launches a missile in the next couple of weeks, as it has promised, it will be the result of international cooperation stretching from Moscow to Tehran and, perhaps, Beijing.

Experts who track North Korea's space program expect the communist regime will roll out a somewhat improved version of the Taepodong-2 (or the Unha-2 as North Korea refers to it) missile it last tested in April 2009. The Taepodong-2 has never had a completely successful launch but, according to David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists, "We can go back and model that (2009) trajectory pretty well. The trajectory certainly appears to be the kind of trajectory they would have used for a satellite launch."

Experts expect the missile that the North Koreans are preparing to test is not drastically different from the vehicle used three years ago. "I don't expect any major new things utterly visible on the launch vehicle. I expect it to be the same basic configuration as we saw in 2009," said Charles Vick, senior fellow in space policy for GlobalSecurity.Org. After years of watching North Korea's activities and past launches, experts like Vick and Wright have been able to learn a lot, but not everything, about the Taepodong-2.

Schematic drawing of a Taepo-Dong 2 missile by Charles Vick of GlobalSecurity.org

Most large modern rockets are built in several parts, or stages. In this case, the first, or lower, stage provides the bulk of the power to lift the missile off the launch pad and into its initial flight trajectory. When the first stage runs out of fuel, it falls off and the second, or middle, stage kicks the missile to a higher altitude and gets it going faster. The third, or upper, stage carries the payload and provides that last kick of power to lift the payload (in this case a small satellite) into orbit at a speed that will keep it there.

Wright believes the upper stage of the Taepodong-2 comes from a missile first built by the Soviets in their heyday 50 years ago. In 1962, the Soviets started developing a new submarine-launched ballistic missile, the SSN-6. It was made up of a large engine that provided lift and some small steering engines on top that kept it on course. About the upper stage Wright said that what many observers think, "having looked at both what we've seen of the structure of it and also how it operated in the 2009 launch, is that it uses small engines from a Russian submarine-launched missile that Russia built ... called the SSN-6."

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