The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA; ) is a Korean government-funded space and aeronautics agency. Established under the Ministry of Science and ICT, KASA oversees the

Korea Aerospace Research Institute The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI; ), established in 1989, is the aeronautics and space agency of South Korea. Its main laboratories are located in Daejeon, in the Daedeok Science Town. KARI's vision is to continue building upon in ...

and

Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI; ) is the national research institute in astronomy and space science of South Korea funded by the South Korean Government. Its headquarters are located in Daejeon, in the Daedeok Science T ...

. Its headquarters is located in

Sacheon Sacheon (; ) is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. Sacheon's chief fame comes from its being the site of two naval battles in the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), Seven Year War. ...

South Gyeongsang Province South Gyeongsang Province (, ) is a province in the southeast of South Korea. The provincial capital is at Changwon. It is adjacent to the major metropolitan center and port of Busan. The UNESCO World Heritage Site Haeinsa, a Buddhist temple tha ...

History

KASA was established on 27 May 2024 as part of a campaign promise made by President

Yoon Suk Yeol Yoon Suk Yeol (; born 18 December 1960) is a South Korean politician and former prosecutor who served as the 13th president of South Korea from 2022 until Impeachment of Yoon Suk Yeol, he was removed from office in 2025. The shortest-serving ...

to reform national politics, including shifting space exploration to the private sector. Seen as the domestic version of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, KASA aims to become one of the top five leading space agencies through developing the KSLV-III rocket and creating and landing homegrown spacecraft on the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...

by 2032 and

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

by 2045. The administration was launched as a temporary headquarters by remodeling the Aaron Aviation Ship Industry building located in Sanam-myeon,

. On February 25, 2025, the National Space Committee selected the Sacheon District of the

National Aerospace Industrial Complex The National Aerospace Industrial Complex () is a South Korean national industrial complex that will be built in Sacheon and Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province in June 2025, and is the largest aerospace industry cluster in Korea. Complex is divided i ...

as the final site for the new headquarters, with the goal of moving into the new headquarters by 2030.

Program

Lunar exploration

On October 30, 2024, KASA and KARI signed an agreement for the second phase of the lunar exploration project, lunar lander development, and announced that it would begin the project in earnest. The main content is to invest approximately 530 billion won over 10 years to independently develop a lunar lander to be sent to the moon with the goal of landing on the moon in 2032.

KSLV-III

In 2022, KSLV-III, which is under development with a budget of 2.132 trillion won and aims to launch a Korean lunar lander in 2032 and achieve a performance more than three times that of

Nuri Nuri is a place in modern Sudan on the west side of the Nile River, Nile, near the Fourth Cataract. Nuri is situated about 15 km north of Sanam, Sudan, Sanam, and 10 km from Jebel Barkal. History Nuri is the second of three Napatan bur ...

, passed the preliminary feasibility study. KSLV-III is being developed with the goal of its first launch in 2030.

KPS

International cooperations

United States

In September 2024, the Administrator Yoon Young-bin held a bilateral meeting with NASA Administrator

Bill Nelson Clarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician, attorney, and former astronaut who served from 2001 to 2019 as a United States Senate, United States senator from Florida and from 2021 to 2025 as the Administrator ...

at NASA Headquarters and signed a joint statement for cooperation in space and aeronautics activities. The two administration agreed to strengthen cooperation in the fields of lunar and deep space exploration centered around the

Artemis Program The Artemis program is a Exploration of the Moon, Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), formally established in 2017 via Space Policy Directive 1. The program's stated long-ter ...

, and to discover innovative projects with high potential in fields such as space life science, lunar surface science, joint use of deep space antennas, and

heliophysics Heliophysics (from the prefix "wikt:helio-, helio", from Attic Greek ''hḗlios'', meaning Sun, and the noun "physics": the science of matter and energy and their interactions) is the physics of the Sun and its connection with the Solar System. ...

, and to cooperate in technological exchanges and human resource development, as well as space sustainability such as space debris reduction and space traffic management. They signed an agreement on the exploration of the fourth Lagrangian point (L4), the main contents of which are to seek ways to improve space radiation safety and the efficiency of space exploration activities, and to jointly conduct research on data transmission, optical communication, and use of repeaters at L4.

Germany

Yoon met with the

German Aerospace Center The German Aerospace Center (, abbreviated DLR, literally ''German Center for Air- and Space-flight'') is the national center for aerospace, energy and transportation research of Germany, founded in 1969. It is headquartered in Cologne with 3 ...

and signed an interagency agreement for cooperation in the areas of L4 heliosphere observations, satellite navigation, space safety, space exploration and Earth observation.

Structure

The role of KASA is largely divided into four: * Establishing national aerospace policy * Conducting

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

* Training human resources, promoting industry * International cooperation

Administrator

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Korea AeroSpace Administration Space agencies Aeronautics organizations Government ministries of South Korea 2024 establishments in South Korea Government agencies established in 2024