Korea's First Lunar Probe Danuri Confirmed for Launch on the 5th as Scheduled

Ministry of Science and ICT: "Danuri Status Normal, Only Countdown Remains"
Launch at 8:08 AM on the 5th, Separation and Navigation Start 40 Minutes Later

South Korea's first lunar probe, Danuri, is awaiting launch at the U.S. Space Force launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Photo by Joint Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] South Korea's first lunar probe, Danuri, will be launched on the morning of the 5th. It marks the first step in South Korea's space exploration and places the country as the seventh nation in the world to conduct lunar exploration. This is the most precise lunar mission since the U.S. Apollo program in the 1960s and 70s, generating significant global anticipation.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 4th that Danuri is scheduled to be launched as planned at around 8:08 a.m. on the 5th (7:08 p.m. local time on the 4th) from the U.S. Space Force base at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Danuri arrived at the launch site, the Cape Canaveral U.S. Space Force base, last month on the 6th after being transported by air from Incheon Airport. Over the past month, all pre-launch procedures including system checks, fueling, and assembly with the launch vehicle have been completed. It is currently mounted on SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle and awaiting launch.

About 40 minutes after launch, Danuri will separate from the launch vehicle, and approximately 20 minutes later (about one hour after launch), it is expected to establish initial communication with the ground station. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) will analyze the launch vehicle separation data and confirm between 1 and 2 p.m. whether Danuri has successfully entered its targeted lunar transfer orbit. The launch was originally scheduled for the morning of the 3rd but was postponed by two days due to additional inspections following an issue with the Falcon 9 launch vehicle. If Danuri successfully reaches its target altitude, it will travel to the Moon using a ballistic lunar transfer (BLT) method. This involves escaping Earth's atmosphere, traveling to the Lagrange point 1.56 million kilometers away from Earth, then changing direction to enter lunar orbit. Although this is a long journey taking about four and a half months, it saves more than 20% of fuel.

Danuri will carry out missions including selecting candidate sites for South Korea's first lunar landing in 2030, conducting scientific experiments, and capturing images of the Moon's permanently shadowed regions for NASA. It is scheduled to enter lunar orbit at the end of December and orbit the Moon 12 times a day at an altitude of 100 km. Using a high-resolution camera, wide-field polarization camera, magnetometer, and gamma-ray spectrometer, it will perform scientific experiments such as mapping the lunar surface, geological surveys, and resource distribution analysis. It will also conduct deep space communication experiments, including streaming BTS's music videos via space internet equipment. NASA's ShadowCam, developed by NASA, will precisely photograph the permanently shadowed regions that have never received sunlight since the Moon's formation and remain below minus 200 degrees Celsius. This will verify whether water exists in the form of ice and help finalize candidate sites for the Artemis lunar landing missions planned after 2025.

Kim Dae-kwan, head of KARI's lunar exploration project team, said, "After arriving in the U.S., inspections confirmed there were no issues, and all preparations are complete with only the countdown process remaining." He added, "Following the success of Nuri, there seems to be great public interest in Danuri's launch. I hope this interest continues so that we can advance to lunar landers, manned missions, and even deeper space exploration."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.