Jinju City-Korea Aerospace Technology Promotion Association-Gyeongsang National University-KTL Establish Mutual Cooperation System
On the 29th, Jinju City in Gyeongnam signed a business agreement at the city hall situation room with the Korea Aerospace Promotion Association, Gyeongsang National University, and the Korea Testing Laboratory (KTL) to establish a space industry ecosystem.
At the signing ceremony, Jinju Mayor Cho Gyu-il, Son Jae-il of the Korea Aerospace Promotion Association, Gwon Soon-gi, president of Gyeongsang National University, and Kim Se-jong, director of KTL, attended and shared the necessity of mutual cooperation to create a space industry ecosystem and agreed to actively promote collaboration.
Through this agreement, Jinju City will provide administrative and financial support for the creation of the space industry ecosystem; the Korea Aerospace Promotion Association will support companies and build networks to foster the space industry; Gyeongsang National University will train specialized personnel in the space field; and KTL will provide space environment testing technology support, expand the base of the space sector, and train specialized personnel.
The Korea Aerospace Promotion Association, the first specialized space industry association in Korea, was established in 2014 as a non-profit organization under the Ministry of Science and ICT and currently has 94 member companies including industries and research institutes. The association conducts policy research, technology development support, and educational projects to promote space technology development, possessing accumulated experience and networks over many years.
Gyeongsang National University, a national flagship university representing the Gyeongnam region, was the first in Korea to establish a College of Aerospace and a graduate school, leading the development and workforce training in the aerospace and defense sectors, which are strategic industries in Gyeongnam. As a core technology institution of the ‘Jinju Small but Strong R&D Special Zone,’ it supports technology commercialization in aerospace parts and materials, and having been finally selected for the Ministry of Education’s ‘Glocal University 30 Project,’ it plans to concentrate all capabilities to nurture specialized personnel in the space field aiming to become a hub university for aerospace and defense.
KTL is the only government-funded testing and certification institution in Korea. After relocating its headquarters to the Jinju Innovation City in Gyeongnam in 2015 to fulfill national balanced development, it provides one-stop testing services necessary for technology development in the domestic aerospace industry. In particular, the Space Parts Testing Center, established in 2020 as Korea’s first specialized testing and evaluation facility in the space sector, supports technology development and localization of parts for space industry companies and contributes to training specialized personnel as the lead institution for Jinju City’s small satellite development project.
Through this business agreement, the city plans to successfully establish a space environment testing facility, which will be a core facility of the space industry cluster satellite-specialized district located in the Jinju district of the Gyeongnam Aviation National Industrial Complex, and actively cooperate with each institution to foster the space industry and train specialized personnel, thereby creating a space industry ecosystem in Jinju City.
Mayor Cho Gyu-il said, “Jinju City recognizes the aerospace sector as a new growth engine industry responsible for the next 100 years and is intensively fostering related industries,” adding, “We expect that this business agreement will give more momentum to Jinju City’s space industry ecosystem creation project.”
So far, Jinju City has promoted various policies to build a foundation for the space industry and leap forward as a space industry hub city. Since 2019, it has developed small satellites as the first basic local government to do so, launching the first phase satellite ‘JINJUSat-1’ in November last year, and plans to launch the second phase satellite ‘JINJUSat-2’ in 2027. It also supports Gyeongsang National University’s ‘Future Space Education Center Project’ to back the training of skilled professionals.
Based on these achievements, in December 2022, Gyeongnam Province, including Jinju City, was designated as a space industry cluster satellite-specialized district. Accordingly, Jinju City is expanding the infrastructure of the KTL Space Parts Testing Center located in Sangdae-dong, Jinju, and is promoting the construction project of a space environment testing facility (total project cost 217.8 billion KRW) to relocate it to the Jinju district of the Gyeongnam Aviation National Industrial Complex in Jeongchon-myeon.
In addition, Jinju City plans to promote various projects in the aerospace field to foster related industries and create quality jobs, contributing to the revitalization of the local economy.
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