JUST how sophisticated is the rocket that North Korea has announced it will launch in April?
The nation has warned shipping away from in the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean between 4 and 8 April, which probably mark the expected splashdown sites of the rocket鈥檚 stages (see map).
David Wright of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has taken these zones and sketched out consistent with them, assuming that it burns kerosene and nitric acid, as the nation鈥檚 previous rockets are thought to have done.
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It has a mass of about 78 tonnes, he says. Its first two stages splash into the zones when spent, and a third stage will carry a satellite of up to 100 kilograms into orbit. This suggests the nation鈥檚 know-how has advanced little since its last launch failed in 2006. But he notes that the rocket fired by Iran in February appeared more advanced than anticipated.
