Flying to the Moon is the South Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter thanks to a SpaceX Falcon 9

*A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts the KPLO satellite to orbit. Photo is courtesy of the company.*

On Thursday, August 4th at 7:08 p.m. ET, a SpaceX Falcon 9 launched KPLO to a ballistic lunar transfer orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.

Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Space Launch Complex 40’s location on the southeast coast of the US provides access to a wide range of low and medium inclination orbits frequently used by communications and Earth-observing satellites and by supply missions to the International Space Station. The site also allows access to geostationary orbits, as well as departures to the Moon and interplanetary destinations. Photo is courtesy of SpaceX.

This was the sixth launch and landing of this booster, which previously supported the launch of Arabsat-6A, STP-2, COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation FM2, and two Starlink missions.

The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) moon probe, also known as Danuri, successfully launched from the Cape Canaveral SFS in Florida. Once the 678 kg. (1,495-pound) satellite successfully reaches the target orbit, a one-year mission is planned, according to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).

The payload includes four Korean instruments that include two cameras plus a magnetometer and a gamma ray spectrometer. Also featured with KPLO is an highly sensitive camera from NASA — ShadowCam — that has the ability to capture imagery from within the dark moon craters.

*An illustration of NASA’s ShadowCam, courtesy of the agency.*

South Korea will be the seventh space agency to position a satellite into Moon orbit if the mission continues successfully, following those of the United States, the European Union (EU), Japan, China, India and Russia.