The first South Korean moon probe was launched from Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida on Thursday evening (local time). The lunar explorer Danuri will spend a year investigating the lunar surface from orbit around the moon.
The South Korean probe has been launched by a Falcon 9 launch vehicle from space company SpaceX. That two-stage rocket should put Danuri on a trajectory to the moon.
Whether that was successful will only become clear in a few hours. According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, the journey to the moon will take about 4.5 months.
Danuri has six instruments on board with which it can investigate the lunar floor, among other things. That way, the probe can identify potential landing sites for future lunar missions, Yonhap says.
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