South Korea’s first spacecraft launched to the moon

August 5, 2022

South Korea launched its maiden spacecraft to the moon, joining the race with other countries, on August 4, 2022. The South Korean lunar orbiter will inspect the future landing spots. It was launched on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle. It will arrive in December 2022.

Highlights:

If this mission is successful, it will join spacecraft from India and the US which are already operation across the moon as well as Chinese rover on moon’s far side.
India, Russia and Japan will also launch new moon missions in 2022-2023.
NASA is also scheduled to launch its mega moon rocket, under Artemis program, in August 2022. As a part of the mission, an empty crew capsule will be sent across the moon, in a bid to test the systems before a crew climbs aboard in two years.

Important facts about South Korean Moon Mission- “Danuri”:

It is worth USD 180 million mission and South Korea’s first step in lunar exploration.
It features a boxy, solar-powered satellite, that has been designed to slide just 62 miles above the lunar surface.
Scientists will collect geologic and other data from the low polar orbit, for at least a year.
Danuri mission is carrying six science instruments, comprising of a camera for NASA. It will peer into permanently shadowed, ice-filled craters at the poles of Moon.

In May 2022, South Korea joined a NASA-led coalition for exploring the moon with astronauts. Danuri mission is country’s 2^nd shot at space in six weeks. Earlier, in June 2022, South Korea had successfully launched a package of satellites into orbit around Earth using its own rocket for the first time.

« Previous Post Next Post »