BAIKONUR COSMODROME, Kazakhstan, Sept 30, 2008 — South Korean President Lee Myung Bak paid a visit to Moscow-based Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center today, on Tuesday, September 30.

President Lee and other members of the Korean delegation were welcomed and accompanied during this visit by Anatoly Perminov, the head of Russia’s Federal Space Agency, and Vladimir Nesterov, the Khrunichev general director. 

Once in Khrunichev’s final assembly shop, the President had an opportunity to get acquainted with the production process at Khrunichev, Russia’s largest space industry enterprise.

The President paid special attention to the progress made in the development of  the S. Korean space launcher complex. It will be recalled that these efforts are covered by the bi-lateral inter-governmental agreement on space exploration between Russia and S. Korea signed in October 2004. The agreement calls for joint development of the S. Korean space launcher complex including the KSLV-I small-lift booster. KSLV-I Stage 1 will be developed by the Khrunichev Space Center while Stage 2 and the payload will be designed and built in S. Korea.

The S. Korean customer is the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). The Russian side is represented by the Khrunichev Space Center, which has overall responsibility for the project, NPO Energomash (Stage 1 propulsion system) and KBTM, which designs the ground facilities.