South Korea’s first lunar orbiter launched

SEOUL

South Korea’s first lunar orbiter successfully launched on a year-long mission to observe the Moon, Seoul said on Aug. 5, with the payload including a new disruption-tolerant network for sending data from space.

Danuri, a portmanteau of the Korean words for “Moon” and “enjoy,” was on a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida by Elon Musk’s aerospace company SpaceX. It aims to reach the Moon by mid-December.

“South Korea’s first lunar orbiter ‘Danuri’ left for space at 8:08 am on Aug. 5, 2022,” Seoul’s science ministry said in a tweet, sharing a video of the rocket blasting off trailing a huge column of smoke and flames.

“Danuri will be the first step towards the Moon and the farther universe,” it said, apparently referring to the country’s ambitious space program, which includes plans for a Moon mission by 2030.
SpaceX tweeted that the launch had been a success.

“Deployment of KPLO confirmed,” it said, referring to Danuri using an acronym of its official name, the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter.

During its mission, Danuri will use six different instruments, including a highly sensitive camera provided by NASA, to conduct research, including investigating the lunar surface to identify potential landing sites.