SpaceX just launched South Korea's first mission to the Moon

South Korea launched its first moon mission on Thursday. The KPLO began its journey to the Moon at 7:08 p.m. after being loaded aboard the Falcon 9 rocket. The plane takes off from Florida.

South Korea's space agency and NASA collaborated on a project called the KPLO. It's a big mission for South Korea and also for the company. Musk's space company has launched many rockets, but they usually don't aim for the moon. The Israeli lunar lander Beresheet was doomed when it crashed on the Moon's surface due to the use of a Falcon 9 rocket.

We will have to wait until December to find out if the mission is a success after Thursday's KPLO launch. The KPLO, also known as "Danuri", will use lunar transfer to get to its destination rather than travelling directly to the Moon. The technique uses the Sun, Moon, and Earth's gravity to place the orbiter into the moon's path. The Danuri will use less fuel, but it will take more time to get to the moon.

If it succeeds in reaching the Moon, the Danuri's mission is to develop technologies for lunar exploration, conduct scientific investigation, and demonstrate and validate current space technologies. If the mission is extended, it will go down to 70 km or lower if it goes for a year.

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A magnetometer and a gamma-ray spectrometer are among the scientific instruments carried by the orbiter. It has a lunar terrain imager, a wide-angle polarimetric camera, and a high-sensitivity camera, all of which are used to collect images of different areas of the Moon.

The Danuri is attempting to test its ability to transfer data through space. Similar to a space internet, DTN technology has already been used by the International Space Station, but this will be the first time it's been tested outside of the Earth's atmosphere.

The U.S., Russia, and China have all tried to reach the Moon with the exception of South Korea.