SEOUL – South Korea is basking in national pride over the successful launch, after years of frustration and failure, of a rocket and satellite made by South Korean scientists and engineers.

The joy of triumph permeated the atmosphere at the Naro Space Center on the country’s southern coast with confirmation 40 minutes after the launch that “the performance verification satellite” had gone into orbit. The 358-pound satellite was launched along with an accompanying 1.3-ton dummy satellite and four cube satellites for academic research.

The science minister, Lee Jong-ho, called it “a monumental moment not just in South Korea’s science technology history but for South Korea’s history as well.” More than 300 South Korean companies participated in ways big and small in manufacturing the rocket and satellites under the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.

Observers at the space center, notably those who had dedicated careers to making South Korea a contender in the space race, held their collective breath until South Korea’s space station in Antarctica reported signals from the verification satellite. The satellite had burst from the third stage of the 200-ton rocket, named Nuri (“World”), after soaring 435 miles above the Earth’s surface, 14 minutes and 35 seconds after the launch, according to KARI.

The launch confirmed South Korea’s ability to put made-in-Korea satellites into orbit and also puts the South significantly ahead of North Korea in space. North Korea has claimed to successfully launch satellites in 2012 and 2016, but is widely believed to have used them simply to test its ability to fire long-range ballistic missiles.

North Korea has collaborated on space technology with Iran, which has sent observers to witness and advise on its launches. The North has regularly fired small- and medium-sized missiles and in May launched an intercontinental ballistic missile employing some of the technology used for a satellite.

South Korea has denied working on satellites for the same purpose but is assumed to want to use them for watching North Korea. For years the South has relied on American satellites for observing whatever the North is doing about nuclear and missile tests. Images from American satellites have shown North Korea preparing for another underground nuclear test at Punggye-ri in mountains in the northeast, where it’s conducted its previous six nuclear tests, most recently in September 2017.

“The successful launch of satellites by a homegrown space launch vehicle on Tuesday represents a significant leap for South Korea’s space program,” the South Korean news agency, Yonhap, said.

The article proclaimed South Korea “a member of the elite global space club” after having been “a relative latecomer to the global space development race.” With the launch, the South “became the seventh country in the world to have developed a space launch vehicle that can carry a more than 1-ton satellite, after Russia, the United States, France, China, Japan and India.”

The South achieved that milestone after numerous frustrations and disappointment, including a launch that had to be canceled last week after discovery of a glitch. Worse, the third stage of a rocket blew up last October as it was achieving the desired altitude for putting a satellite into orbit.

It was because of that failure that the Korea Aerospace Research Institute carefully refrained from raising hopes this time around. Korean TV networks carried the event live for a nation enthralled by a project that had cost $1.8 billion since its inception in 2010.

Lee Sang-ryool, the project director, finally broke the tension when he reported “all phases of the launch proceeded normally.” The satellites, Yonhap quoted him as saying, were orbiting “at exactly the intended altitude and speed.”

Among those glued to TV screens for the launch was the new president, Yoon Suk-yeol. In the flush of success, he said he would make good on a pledge he made in his recent campaign: to set up a separate aerospace agency.

“The dreams and hopes of our young people will reach out to space,” he said, promising to “systematically support the aerospace industry.”