Posted on 07/31/2022 12:05:28 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, or KPLO, spacecraft is set for launch at 7:08 p.m. EDT (2308 GMT) next Thursday, Aug. 4, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Mission managers said earlier this week the launch was delayed two days to allow time for SpaceX to complete additional work on the Falcon 9 rocket.
Technicians and engineers working inside SpaceX’s payload processing facility recently completed fueling of the Korean lunar probe, following the spacecraft’s delivery to Cape Canaveral from South Korea on July 6.
The spacecraft was loaded with hydrazine fuel inside the SpaceX clean room. South Korean engineers who traveled to the launch base with the KPLO spacecraft also completed final tests on the probe, South Korea’s first mission to the moon and first venture in deep space exploration.
The 1,495-pound (678-kilogram) spacecraft was expected to be encapsulated inside the Falcon 9 rocket’s payload fairing after fueling. The aeroshell will protect the spacecraft during the final phase of launch preparations, and during the first few minutes of the launch itself.
Then SpaceX will transport the payload module from the processing facility to the Falcon 9 rocket’s hangar a couple miles away, where ground teams will connect the spacecraft inside the rocket’s nose cone to the Falcon 9’s upper stage.
The mission carries six science instruments and technology demonstration payloads.
KPLO will test a new South Korean spacecraft platform designed for deep space operations, along with new communication, control, and navigation capabilities, including the validation of an “interplanetary internet” connection using a disruption tolerant network.
The mission’s scientific objectives include mapping the lunar surface to help select future landing sites, surveying resources like water ice on the moon, and probing the radiation environment near the moon.
(Excerpt) Read more at spaceflightnow.com ...
Awesome roundel!
Come on SpaceX! We haven’t had a launch in over a week now. I’ve really gotten spoiled. I want to see a booster landing every few days at most.
” Battle Beneath the Earth”...
Unnamed yellow peril tunnels beneath the US to position atomic bombs... The classic conspiracy theory movie.
I recommend “ Rocky Jones Space Ranger”. Ever since I watched it as a kid, I wondered why NASA didn’t land that way. A friend of mine who’s a member of the board at the Astronaut Memorial at the Cape told me that he could get me into the VIP area or a launch. I said, if you can do that, can you get me on the recovery ship to watch the booster land. He laughed, said even he couldn’t do that. His dad worked on the crawler design and maintenance team since the 60’s, while my dad built optical tracking gear and dishes at Radiation ( now Harris) since the 60’s. We both watched Mercury, Gemini and Apollo launches as kids in elementary school. Our classes would go onto the playground to watch any launch. Good days, great times, and America was moving on into the future.
Interesting stuff. Thank you. Space travel seems to be one of the few areas where mankind is moving in a positive direction. We are meant to leave this planet someday: Musk’s vision that we must become a multiplanetary species.
Looking forward to this launch! 🔥🚀
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