US expert says NKorea rocket launches satellite
Tuesday - 12/11/2012, 11:53pm ET
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - An American space expert said North Korea has succeeded in launching a satellite into space.
Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said late Tuesday from Cambridge, Massachusetts, that the three-stage Unha-3 rocket launched early Wednesday morning delivered the satellite into orbit and constituted "a perfect success for North Korea."
He said that based on his own calculations, an object identified by the U.S. space command as "39026, 2012-072A" was from the North Korean satellite.
The apparent North Korean success comes after a rocket launch failure in April that flamed out after only 90 seconds.
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