韩国宇宙航空厅2027年预算申请增加47%至1.65万亿韩元，重点投向运载火箭与月球探测

The South Korean government will raise the Korea AeroSpace Administration's budget by 47% next year to 1.6 trillion won, concentrating investment on launch vehicles and lunar exploration. The plan calls for building a regular launch schedule for the Nuri rocket and sending a domestically developed small lunar lander to the moon in 2030, shifting the focus of the country's space program from acquiring technology to carrying out actual space missions.
The space agency said on the 1st that it has drawn up a 2027 budget request of 1.6491 trillion won, up 529 billion won from 1.1201 trillion won this year. The agency's budget has risen steadily from 759.8 billion won in 2024 to 964.9 billion won in 2025 and 1.1201 trillion won in 2026.
The government sharply increased spending on what it calls the repeatability and operational readiness of space development. South Korea secured independent launch vehicle technology through the Nuri program. But turning the rocket, which has flown four times, into a broader space industry requires sustained launch demand and infrastructure to put satellites into orbit. To that end, the government will push for at least one Nuri launch a year, and over the medium to long term build a privately led system capable of two to three or more launches annually. In lunar exploration, it will expand investment beyond orbiter-based missions to communications satellites, landers and surface mobility technology.
Lunar exploration drew the largest percentage increase. Related spending will rise 180.1% to 279.4 billion won next year from 99.8 billion won this year. Rather than viewing the moon solely as a target for scientific exploration, the government sees it as a future space for economic activity including communications, navigation and resource use, and will build an exploration framework running from Earth-moon communications infrastructure to a small lunar lander demonstration and then an independent lunar landing.
In particular, a new 106.3 billion won program to develop a small lunar lander will begin, targeting a lunar landing and technology demonstration in 2030. A further 13 billion won in new funding will go toward a lunar orbit communications satellite linking the lunar surface with Earth, and 5.6 billion won is allocated for scientific and technology payloads and mobility technology for the lunar surface. Funding for the second-phase lunar lander development under the existing exploration program will also rise to 93.7 billion won from 80.9 billion won this year.
The largest budget in absolute terms goes to space transport, which the agency has dubbed the construction of a space highway. Spending will rise 113.8% to 562.9 billion won next year from 263.2 billion won this year. A new program supporting follow-on Nuri launches will receive 75 billion won and establish a schedule of at least one launch a year. Over the medium to long term, the goal is to transition to a privately led commercial launch ecosystem capable of two to three or more launches annually.
Funding for the next-generation launch vehicle that will succeed Nuri will increase 2.4-fold to 291.6 billion won next year from 120.4 billion won this year. The focus is on securing first-stage reusability and heavy-lift technology to improve the price competitiveness of future launch vehicles. The Korea Space Launch Vehicle upgrade program will receive 155 billion won, and 25.3 billion won in new funding is allocated to a third-phase upgrade that will replace aging equipment at the Naro Space Center and build a large assembly facility and test building.
The simultaneous doubling of launch vehicle and lunar exploration budgets is seen as a strategy to link the two fields into a single space development framework. The approach builds transport capacity to carry satellites and probes into space, then expands activity into lunar communications, landing and exploration on that foundation. More frequent launches would also create more opportunities to carry private satellites in addition to government ones, potentially laying the groundwork for a domestic launch services market.
For satellites, 264.7 billion won will fund a new geostationary environmental and ocean satellite program and expand investment in the KOMPSAT-8 multipurpose satellite, the Korean Positioning System (KPS) and low-Earth-orbit satellite communications technology.
Core technology development for a space AI data center will begin as a new program. With 2.1 billion won in funding, the project centers on developing high-efficiency, large-capacity heat dissipation and power control technologies needed to operate a data center in space, and verifying them on the ground. Spending on future aviation, including drones and advanced air mobility technology, will rise 7% to 56.8 billion won from 53.1 billion won.
The government aims to ultimately channel this investment into growth of the private aerospace industry. A total of 184.5 billion won will go toward building a private-sector-led aerospace industrial ecosystem. The New Space investment fund will receive 100 billion won, unchanged from this year, while support for commercialization demonstrations of space technology will rise to 1.5 billion won from 500 million won, and the program to build a private aerospace industrial ecosystem will increase to 1.9 billion won from 900 million won. Funding for training space technology innovation talent will more than double to 6.1 billion won from 3 billion won.
The agency's plan is not to stop at developing launch and exploration technology directly, but to use government investment to create early launch and exploration demand and infrastructure, and turn that into business opportunities for private companies. "The 2027 budget request focuses on moving beyond government-led technology development to connect it with corporate growth and industrial competitiveness," said Oh Tae-seok, administrator of the Korea AeroSpace Administration. "We will do our utmost to strengthen competitiveness in space transport, space exploration, advanced satellites and future aviation, and to achieve a major leap forward for South Korea's aerospace industry."