Her first mission to the moon was launched South Korea.

The Asian nation is “traveling” to the moon with its first mission, the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri, which was launched on Thursday evening from Cape Canaveral in Florida, USA, on a US Falcon 9 rocket. Space X. After a purposefully chosen long course, it is expected to reach the Moon in mid-December, where it will be launched into orbit at a distance of 100 kilometers from its surface.

The mission is led by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), which said the mission “is the first step towards securing and testing the nation’s space exploration capabilities.” South Korea has even more ambitious space plans for the future. If all goes well, the next step will be to land a South Korean robotic boat by 2030.

The 678-kilogram, $180 million Danuri (a combination of the Korean words for “moon” and “delight”) carries six scientific instruments, five South Korean and one American NASA (ShadowCam camera). The mission is designed for at least a year. Among other things, the Moon’s magnetic field and its mysterious anomalies (inexplicably strong in places) will be studied. The three-chamber craft will also look for suitable sites for future moon landings from South Korea, as well as water ice in craters without sunlight.

The country is also participating in the new Artemis program, with which the US space agency will once again send astronauts to the moon, this time on a more permanent basis. More and more countries besides the US and Russia, which have had a long lunar “experience” since the 1960s, are interested in having a presence on the Moon (China, which has sent several successful robotic missions, India, Israel, Japan, Europe, etc.).

South Korea is simultaneously developing its own missiles. The first (Naro-1) was successfully launched in 2013, and the second largest rocket, Nuri, launched several satellites in June of this year. The country already has several low-orbit communications and environmental satellites, as well as an extensive military missile program (under threat from North Korea, which has an extensive missile program).

Together with Danuri, the small American spacecraft CAPSTONE is heading to the Moon, which is expected to enter lunar orbit in November. An uncrewed Artemis 1 mission is expected in late August or early September, the first test of NASA’s giant new rocket and capsule designed to return American astronauts to the Moon by 2025.

Finally, in 2023, India plans to send the Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon, which will include a rover and a rover.