Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Bae Kyung-hoon of the Ministry of Science and ICT urged the Korea AeroSpace Administration to manage internal conflict and craft measures to attract and retain talent, saying that as a newly established organization, establishing an organizational culture is important.
At a Korea AeroSpace Administration briefing on the 14th at Seoul Central Post Office, Deputy Prime Minister Bae noted, I have heard there is conflict between the units, with the vice administrator's organization composed of regular civil servants and the mission headquarters centered on outside experts, while Korea AeroSpace Administration Administrator Yoon Young-bin said, Communication is smooth.
Deputy Prime Minister Bae, citing the recent midterm resignations of John Lee, a former NASA official who headed the space mission headquarters, and Kim Hyun-dae, head of the aviation innovation division, stressed that as the contracts for externally recruited term-based personnel approach expiration, the agency must continue to secure excellent talent and create an environment to stay. Administrator Yoon said, We will recruit more experienced overseas personnel, adding, We will also pay attention to improving living conditions and the work environment.
Meanwhile, the Korea AeroSpace Administration addressed concerns that achieving a 90% success rate—the threshold often cited for exporting the Nuri rocket (KSLV-II)—would require consecutive successful launches going forward, stating, If we are given at least one launch opportunity each year, we can significantly raise the success rate with every launch.
In the briefing, Deputy Prime Minister Bae said, If we succeed through the seventh launch, it will be 86%, and if we succeed through the eighth and ninth, it will be 90%, and asked, Isn't there pressure to succeed consecutively? Administrator Yoon, noting Nuri's current success rate (75%) and the high success rates of overseas launch vehicles, said, We will accumulate data to raise the probability of success in subsequent launches.
Earlier in December last year, President Lee Jae-myung also said, Prepare investment on the premise of launching a space launch vehicle once a year, suggesting the government would take responsibility if needed. At the time, Administrator Yoon said, We must raise Nuri's success rate to over 90% by launching at least once a year through 2032, and explained, The expense per launch is about 120 billion won.
A follow-up assessment said price competitiveness also depends on the number of launches. Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) President Lee Sang-chul said, In the commercial launch market, unit cost is as important as success rate, adding, Price competitiveness will improve sharply when we conduct about four launches a year domestically. However, he said, The expense decline is steep up to four launches a year, and beyond that the decrease will not be large, adding, We will maintain the ecosystem and lower unit costs by continuing launches through government and public demand.
The need to reset roles between the Korea AeroSpace Administration and government-funded research institutes was also raised. Deputy Prime Minister Bae asked that roles be clarified so that the Korea AeroSpace Administration handles policy planning and design; KARI conducts related research and development (R&D) and transfers technology to the private sector; and KASI undertakes long-term research that challenges the world's top level even at the risk of failure. He also instructed the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Korea AeroSpace Administration, KARI, and KASI to convene a joint coordination forum.
This Ministry of Science and ICT briefing ran over three days, from the 12th to the 14th, with four sessions covering 55 institutions. Discussions included redefining the missions of each government-funded research institute in line with the AI grand transition and the abolition of the project-based system (PBS), industry-academia-research collaboration, a plan for an integrated consultative body in the quantum field, and a cooperation framework for physical AI. In the report from R&D planning and management agencies, topics included expanded budget execution and a balanced approach of autonomy and responsibility, such as embracing a culture that tolerates failure and strictly responding to misconduct.
On this, Deputy Prime Minister Bae said, If each does it alone, the outcome will only be at the level of what each can achieve, emphasizing, To create world-class results, goals must be set from the perspective of the entire set of institutions to generate synergy with universities and corporations, and scattered data must be advanced into high-quality data that can be trained.
The Ministry of Science and ICT also said it would turn the follow-up measures raised at the briefing site into tasks and that Deputy Prime Minister Bae would directly check on implementation.