South Korean resort island looks to become home to space industry

JEJU ISLAND, South Korea, July 26 (UPI) -- Late last year, South Korea launched a solid-fuel rocket from a floating barge a little more than 2 miles off the southern coast of Jeju, rattling windows on the resort island as it soared into space where it jettisoned an Earth observation satellite into orbit.

Though ostensibly a military project, the launch made Jeju the only regional South Korean government with experience in space flight and announced to the world the island's entrance into the space industry.

Rocket launch off Jeju Island. Rattled windows. pic.twitter.com/ni5VjA3Cgf — Darryl Coote (@DarrylCoote) December 4, 2023

Over last few years, Jeju has been quietly courting private aerospace companies and start ups with plans to turn its tourism-dependent isle into a space industry hub.

"Jeju is very much interested in pursuing the new, emerging industries, and at the center of the emerging industries is the private space sector," Jeju Gov. Oh Young-hoon told UPI.

Asked how much value it could bring to Jeju, he said it was "unimaginable at this point."

He highlighted the success of California's SpaceX as an example. No one knew that it would grow to become the behemoth it is now, he said.

"Jeju, we believe, has the potential to be developed into a successful industry space hub," he said.

The beating heart of the isle's nascent space industry is the Hawon Techno Campus on the site of the former Tamna University in southern Seogwipo City.

At least nine aerospace companies are slated to move in. Others are expected to follow.

"By around 2030, Jeju hopes to have a fully integrated space industry where satellites are manufactured, launched, controlled via ground stations and utilized for various applications --- all within Jeju," Kim Ki-hong, director of Jeju's Space Mobility Division, told UPI.

At the campus in late April, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the Jeju Hanwah Space Center, a two-story, 123,171-square-foot facility that will house satellite development, assembly and testing facilities.

According to the Jeju government, the facility will aim to produce dozens of satellites a year and is expected "to foster the private space industry and simultaneously accelerate changes in the region's industrial structure."

Oh described the ceremony as marking "a milestone" in the island's fostering of the private space industry.

"Jeju will continue its bold challenge toward space so that the Hawaon Techno Campus can emerge as a leading innovative hub for the private space industry in Korea," he said in a statement at the time.

Among the farm fields and cow pastures of Sangdae-ri, a sleepy town in northwestern Jeju about a 25-minute drive from the island's main Jeju City, lies a plot of farmland where instead of the island's iconic tangerines, antennae are sprouting.

Though it did not look like much when UPI was given a recent tour -- essentially a few concrete platforms propping up a handful of antennae by a pair of glorified trailers -- Contec, the new owners of this former farm field, have big plans for it: to make it the largest private space ground station in South Korea.

When construction is complete, it will consist of 10 antenna pads, two types of antenna -- for communication with geostationary and low-Earth orbit satellites -- a visitor center and other facilities.

Contec Vice President Lee Jaewon told UPI that Jeju has many benefits for his ground station compared to elsewhere in the country.

At some 700,000 people, the island is less populated than most other urban spaces in South Korea, meaning it is less developed and home to fewer high-rise buildings to act as obstacles for radio frequencies.

There are no buildings in eyeshot of Contec's plot of land, and Lee told UPI that it will stay that way as the surrounding areas have been prohibited by the government from future development. So despite the seemingly constant construction on the island, Contec is confident their radio frequencies will remain unobstructed.

Lee explained that Jeju has favorable regulations for aerospace companies, particularly lax regulatory controls on radio frequencies for Contec. In other locales, they would need to apply for access to specific frequencies while on Jeju there is no need.

The island is also a self-governing province and has made itself a special Investment Promotion Zone, which grants companies, such as Contect, tax benefits.

According to Kim, ground station companies are receiving tax benefits through this initiative worth millions of dollars. The province's budget has also some $2.8 million earmarked specifically for the space industry.

Rounding out the private space industry are launch vehicles, and Perigee Aerospace has told UPI that it is planning a test launch of its two-stage Blue Whale rocket from its sea platform by the end of this year.

Perigee aims to be a low-cost transport for satellites at about $4 million per launch, which equals to about $20,000 a kilo.

Shim Sooyeon, Perigee's vice president of global marketing, told UPI that CEO Shin Yoon, in search of a launch site for the first iteration of Blue Whale, essentially cold-called the island's government in 2021.

"Somebody picked up the phone from the other side, and that was the beginning of our relationship with Jeju," she said.

That same year, from the coast of Yongsu-ri in western Jeju, it conducted not only Jeju's but South Korea's first launch of a private rocket.

Shim told UPI that along with the local government having "always been a very great partner of ours," the island has favorable launch conditions.

No place in South Korea is closer to the equator, it offers a wide horizontal angle as all south of the island is essentially ocean with no other territories to worry about flying over, it has a less congested airspace and less radio frequency interference for space communication.

"So, all those make Jeju an ideal starting point for our endeavor and other companies," she said.

She continued that Jeju being a tourist hub in Asia is also a benefit.

Located in the East China Sea, Jeju is a two-hour flight for tens of millions of people, and its government has made the isle as accessible to them as possible in search of their tourism dollars.

Shim said that accessibility is also made available to their potential customers. Those seeking to launch satellites no longer need to cover the expenses or the risk of transporting their sensitive equipment and teams to the private launch sites of Rocket Lab and SpaceX in the United States, she said.

However, this is not the first time that Jeju has aspired to be a hub for space flights.

Because of its geographical benefits, Jeju was a candidate for the Naro Space Center in the 1990s. But the plan was opposed by local residents, and the nation's space port was ultimately built in South Jeolla Province.

Kim, director of Jeju's Space Mobility Division, said that the conditions are different now compared to when Jeju was bidding for the Naro Space Center.

The industry, he said, is being led not by the government but the private sector. In fact, both Perigee and Contec told UPI that they were the ones to contact Jeju, and not the other way around.

He also said the currently slumping tourism industry has aided in the "unprecedentedly favorable" acceptance of the high-tech industry.

The increase in attention in the space industry comes as Jeju's tourism industry has been hit hard this summer. A series of viral scandals that have coalesced Koreans' dissatisfaction with the value-per-dollar experience of visiting Jeju has aided in domestic tourism to drop nearly 8% on year, according to government statistics.

The downturn has seen hundreds of accommodation businesses close and thousands of fewer flights land on the island. The local government earlier this month even opened a so-called Jeju Tourism Inconvenience Report Center to try and mitigate dissatisfaction.

Oh, the governor of Jeju, told UPI the island's space industry has the potential to account for 30% of Jeju's regional gross domestic product, which is currently dominated by tourism-related fields, such as accommodation and food services, though the island's Space Mobility Division was unfamiliar with that figure.

According to central government statistics, Jeju has the lowest RGDP in the nation, second only to Sejong, which is essentially the administrative capital of South Korea.

When it comes to economic diversification, options are somewhat limited on Jeju as it bills itself as eco-friendly, with much emphasis on preserving the island's natural beauty. Opening factories would tarnish its image while harming a main reason why tourists visit.

The Jeju government sees the space industry as a way of boosting its manufacturing sector, creating high-value jobs and adding another reason to attract tourists to its shores -- all without harming the local environment

Kim said the island's pursuit of the space industry is compatible with Jeju's great environment goals, pointing to the manufacturing of satellites and the execution of ground station services producing little to no pollution.

Shim also told UPI that Perigee is working to be as eco-friendly as they can, using methane instead of other more carbon dioxide-producing fuels while maximizing the reusability of its rockets so that "only a very small part" of the spacecraft is expendable.

"By fostering the space industry, Jeju expects to overcome the economic structure's heavy reliance on existing services that have shown vulnerability to external variables," Kim said.

"Additionally, like the Kennedy Space Center in the U.S., which became a significant tourist attraction, the activation of the space industry in Jeju is anticipated to create a synergy with the existing tourism industry, generating substantial added value."

Perigee similarly shares this vision. Shim said they imagine families vacationing on Jeju, picnicking along the coast while watching their launches on the ocean.

"It's the vision we cherish a lot," she said. "And by doing that, we want to bring the vision and dreams of space closer to everybody, from kids to grandparents and everybody of South Korea so that they can support and look for the space industry from their heart."