Danuri — launch
Date in UTC
The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), officially Danuri, is South Korea's first lunar mission. The orbiter, its science payload and ground control infrastructure are technology demonstrators. The orbiter will also be tasked with surveying lunar resources such as water ice, uranium, helium-3, silicon, and aluminium, and produce a topographic map to help select future lunar landing sites. The mission was launched on 4 August 2022 on a Falcon 9 Block 5 launch vehicle. It was inserted into orbit around the Moon on 16 December 2022 (UTC). On 23 May 2022, the South Korean Ministry of Science and ICT officially named the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (시험용 달 궤도선, 試驗用月軌道船) as "Danuri" (다누리).
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_Pathfinder_Lunar_Orbiter. Related NASA reference: https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/chronology.html#2022. Description adapted from Wikipedia contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).
- Category
- Launches and Flight Tests
- Type
- Orbital launch
- Subjects
- Space transportation
- Mission
- Danuri
- Organization
- SpaceX
- Vehicle
- Falcon 9
- Location
- Cape Canaveral Air Station, Florida
- Country
- US
- Outcome
- Successful
Sources and attribution
- Jonathan McDowell — General Catalog of Artificial Space Objects (opens in a new tab) — Data from GCAT (J. McDowell, planet4589.org/space/gcat), CC BY 4.0. Adapted into anniversary records. (CC BY 4.0)
- Wikipedia — Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (Danuri) (opens in a new tab) — Adapted from Wikipedia contributors; selected sentences retained and edited for length, reference markers and pronunciation glosses. CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Article and edit history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_Pathfinder_Lunar_Orbiter (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Timeline of Space Exploration Missions 1957 to 2031 (opens in a new tab)
- NASA — Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (Danuri) (opens in a new tab)
- NASA NSSDCA — Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (Danuri) (opens in a new tab)
