South Korea test launches homegrown missile

South Korea launched its first domestically built space rocket on Tuesday in the country's second such attempt, months after its earlier liftoff failed to place a dummy payload into orbit.

The three-stage Nuri rocket carrying what officials call a functioning "performance verification" satellite blasted from South Korea's only space launch center on a small island off its southern coast.

The launch would boost South Korea's growing space ambitions but also prove it has key technologies needed to build a space-based surveillance system and bigger missiles amid animosities with rival North Korea.