The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KAI) has restructured its organization to respond to changes in the aerospace field and maximize its research capabilities.
First, to strengthen collaboration with the Space Agency, the existing Aviation Research Institute was renamed the Aviation Innovation Research Institute, and the Satellite Research Institute was renamed the Satellite Space Exploration Research Institute. The Satellite Space Exploration Research Institute plans to establish a lunar lander project team to carry out the key national project in the space exploration institutional sector, the lunar lander project.
In addition, a Space Exploration Research Center has been established to lead research on innovative technologies for space exploration in preparation for the expansion of national space exploration missions led by the Space Agency.
To enhance the core national research and development project of next-generation launch vehicle development, the existing launch vehicle research institute will divide its system research department into two parts: launch vehicle system research 1 and 2. System research 1 will be responsible for the Korea-type launch vehicle enhancement project, which involves the repeated launch of the Nuri rocket, while system research 2 will focus on the next-generation launch vehicle development project.
In the aviation institutional sector, the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) research department will be reorganized into an AAM (Advanced Air Mobility) research department to expand into the AAM domain, and the unmanned aerial vehicle research department will be renamed the Future Aircraft Research Department.
The support organization has also been restructured. A Human Resources Innovation Department has been established, and a Labor-Management Development Team has also been created. The Research Institute has been troubled by labor-management conflicts for a long time. The research institute noted that it aims to create a cooperative culture between labor and management through the Labor-Management Development Team.
The existing ethics management department has been changed to the Ethics ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management department, reorganized under the direct supervision of the director, and a university-industry-research cooperation team has also been established to build a private-led space industry ecosystem.
Lee Sang-cheol, director of the Research Institute, said, "Through this organizational restructuring, we have increased our global competitiveness in research and development and laid the foundation for the sustainable development of the institution."