Seoul, Jan 18 (IANS): South Korea’s national space agency plans to unveil its road map aimed at bolstering the country’s aerospace capabilities next month, its chief has said.

Yoon Young-bin, head of the Korean AeroSpace Administration (KASA), announced the plan at an event for the new year attended by aerospace industry officials, the Yonhap news agency said.

"We will devise a road map on laying the foundation for a private-led aerospace economy, which will include projects to develop space vehicles, such as Nuri space rockets, future-oriented aircraft, and advanced satellites, as part of efforts to bolster the local space industry's competitiveness in the global market," he said.

"Competition in the global aerospace industry is heating up with the advent of emerging powers and the acceleration of private-led growth," he added.

In detail, KASA plans to come up with measures to develop indigenous technologies for reusable rockets and aircraft gas turbine engines.

It will also create a detailed business plan for setting up the world's first space observatory in L4, one of the stable Lagrange points, according to Yoon.

Lagrange points are positions in space where the gravitational forces of a two-body system like the sun and Earth create areas of stability, allowing spacecraft to conduct exploration missions with minimal fuel consumption.

Earlier, KASA officials met their counterparts at the European Space Agency (ESA) and discussed various measures to expand bilateral cooperation in the space sector, the agency said.

The country has also designated May 27 as Aerospace Day to commemorate the launch of the KASA.

The designation has been made to uphold the country's goal of becoming one of the five global leaders in the aerospace industry and create a space economy, the report said.