South Korean startup Innospace fails on its 1st orbital launch attempt

South Korean startup Innospace launches its first Hanbit-Nano rocket from Alcantara Space Center in Brazil. The launch failed about a minute after liftoff.

South Korean startup Innospace failed in its bid to make history on Monday night (Dec. 22).

The company launched its Hanbit-Nano rocket from the Alcantara Space Center in Brazil on Monday at 8:13 p.m. EST (10:13 p.m. local time in Brazil; 0113 GMT on Dec. 23).

It was the first-ever orbital launch attempt by a South Korean company. And, as often happens on debut liftoffs, something went wrong: The 57-foot-tall (17.3 meters) rocket came crashing back to Earth about a minute after liftoff, according to Space Orbit, which was following the launch.

O HANBIT-NANO EXPLODIU!O foguete da empresa coreana teve uma ascensão normal, porém, apresentou uma anomalia em torno dos 50 segundos de voo e acabou explodindo, caindo de volta ao solo. pic.twitter.com/58MnY5AOU9December 23, 2025

It's unclear at this early stage what caused the failure. Innospace did not immediately provide an update on X, and the company cut off its webcast in the wake of the incident, shortly after announcing that an anomaly had occurred.

Hanbit-Nano is a two-stage rocket whose first stage burns liquid oxygen (LOX) and paraffin. The upper stage comes in two configurations; one burns LOX and paraffin while the other employs LOX and liquid methane.

The rocket is designed to deliver up to 198 pounds (90 kilograms) of payload into a sun-synchronous orbit from Brazil. On the debut launch, the Hanbit-Nano was carrying five small satellites for customers from Brazil and India, as well as three additional technology-demonstrating payloads.

Innospace team members together with officials from the Brazilian Air Force and the Brazilian Space Agency pose with the company’s first commercial launch vehicle Hanbit-Nano at the Alcântara Space Center in Brazil. (Image credit: Innospace)

Innospace was founded in 2017. The company, which currently employs about 260 people, has developed all of its launch technology in-house, company CEO Kim Soo-jong told Space.com in October at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney.

Innospace's vision doesn't end with getting Hanbit-Nano online. The company is also developing larger, more powerful rockets called Hanbit-Micro and Hanbit-Mini.

Monday's launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday (Dec. 17), but Innospace pushed it back several times, due to a technical issue and bad weather forecasts.