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Associated Press

South Korea joined the stampede to the moon on Thursday with the launch of a lunar orbiter that will scout out future landing spots.
The satellite launched by SpaceX is taking a long, roundabout path to conserve fuel and will arrive in December.
If successful, it will join spacecraft from the US and India already operating around the moon, and a Chinese rover exploring the moon’s far side.
India, Russia and Japan have new moon missions launching later this year or next, as do a slew of private companies in the US and elsewhere. And Nasa is next up with the debut of its mega moon rocket in late August.

Liftoff! pic.twitter.com/dAQGvpcOCX
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) August 4, 2022

South Korea’s US$180 million mission – the country’s first step in lunar exploration – features a boxy, solar-powered satellite designed to skim just 100km (62 miles) above the lunar surface. Scientists expect to collect geologic and other data for at least a year from this low polar orbit.
It is South Korea’s second shot at space in six weeks.
In June, South Korea successfully launched a package of satellites into orbit around Earth for the first time using its own rocket. The first try last fall fizzled, with the test satellite failing to reach orbit.
And in May, South Korea joined a Nasa-led coalition to explore the moon with astronauts in the coming years and decades.
‘A new chapter’: South Korea launches home-grown rocket in second attempt
Nasa is targeting the end of this month for the first launch in its Artemis programme. The goal is to send an empty crew capsule around the moon and back to test the systems before a crew climbs aboard in two years.
Danuri – Korean for “enjoy the moon” – is carrying six science instruments, including a camera for Nasa.
It is designed to peer into the permanently shadowed, ice-filled craters at the lunar poles. Nasa favours the lunar south pole for future astronaut outposts because of evidence of frozen water.
Danuri will also try to develop a wireless internet environment to link satellites or exploration spacecraft, according to South Korea’s science ministry.
The lunar orbiter will stream K-pop sensation BTS’ song Dynamite to test this wireless network.
South Korea plans to land its own spacecraft on the moon – a robotic probe – by 2030 or so.


“This is a very significant milestone in the history of Korean space exploration,” said Lee Sang-ryool, president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, in a video shown prior to the launch.
“Danuri is just the beginning, and if we are more determined and committed to technology development for space travel, we will be able to reach Mars, asteroids, and so on in the near future.”
SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket carrying Danuri took off from Cape Canaveral close to sunset. It was the third spaceshot of the day from the US.
United Launch Alliance kicked things off at sunrise in Florida, launching an Atlas V rocket with an infrared missile-detection satellite for the US Space Force.
Then Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket company sent six passengers on a quick ride to space from West Texas.
Across the world, the company Rocket Lab launched a small classified satellite from New Zealand for the US National Reconnaissance Office.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


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South Korea

South Korea launches its first spacecraft to the moon

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, or KPLO, lifts off from launch complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Thursday. Photo: AP

China plans to view the universe’s dark past using a fleet of telescopes orbiting the moon

China’s Hongmeng project plans to send an array of microsatellites to the moon’s orbit to look into the universe’s  past. Image: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nasa’s Capstone satellite phones home and is on course for the moon

Nasa says it has resumed communications with the Capstone spacecraft which is on its way to the Moon to test a lopsided lunar orbit. Photo: Nasa

Scientists grow seeds in moon soil, in one giant leap for Earth plants

The plant species Arabidopsis thaliana is placed in a vial at a University of Florida laboratory for later genetic analysis after growing in a small amount of lunar soil. Photo: UF/IFAS via Reuters

Researchers Anna-Lisa Paul and Rob Ferl work with lunar soils in their laboratory in Gainesville, Florida, in 2021. Photo: University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences via AP

The plant species Arabidopsis thaliana is seen sprouting at a University of Florida laboratory in a small amount of lunar regolith – soil from the moon – in May 2021. Photo: UF/IFAS via Reuters

News

Asia

East Asia


The Danuri lunar orbiter – launched in Florida by SpaceX – will scout out future landing spots on its US$180 million mission
This is South Korea’s second shot at space in 6 weeks, after it sent a package of satellites into orbit around Earth in June using its own rocket



The Danuri lunar orbiter – launched in Florida by SpaceX – will scout out future landing spots on its US$180 million mission.


Space

SpaceX