Korea’s first lunar orbiter successfully makes contact with ground control center

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Korea’s first lunar orbiter successfully makes contact with ground control center

Published: 05 Aug. 2022, 11:04 Updated: 05 Aug. 2022, 11:37

Danuri, or Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, separates from the upper stage of SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle 40 minutes after the launch. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Korea’s first lunar orbiter successfully made first contact with the ground control center at around 9:40 a.m. Korean time, an hour after launch, said the Ministry of Science and ICT.

The communication was made through NASA's deep space antenna in Canberra, Australia.

Danuri, or Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), separated from the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle at an altitude of 1,655 kilometers (1,028 miles) above Earth, about 40 minutes after the lift-off at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 7:07 pm on Thursday, Friday morning at 8:07 in Korea.

Whether the orbiter has landed in the targeted orbit to the moon will be announced at around 2 p.m. by the science ministry.

If Danuri successfully settles in the targeted trajectory circling the moon and completes its one-year mission, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute will be the seventh space agency to put a satellite into orbit around the moon, following those of Russia, the United States, Japan, the European Union, China and India.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [[email protected]]