SpaceX is the first to send up the moon [webcast]

No later than 19:08 EDT (23:08 UTC) on August 4 (NET), the airline’s proven Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to blast off from SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral Space Station’s LC-40 platform as part of the company’s 34th launch of 2022. .

The mission carrying the Korean Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO) spacecraft will be SpaceX’s first direct launch to the Moon, and South Korea could become one of the few countries to successfully orbit a planetary body other than Earth.

SpaceX has designated a former Falcon Heavy B1052 booster for the first moon launch. After debuting in April 2019 and supporting another Falcon Heavy launch in June, the former “side booster” sat idle for nearly 1,000 days as each payload contracted to launch the most powerful rocket in operation was delayed by months or even years. Eventually, SpaceX gave up waiting and replaced the car with a Falcon 9 booster, and Falcon 9B1052 debuted on January 31, 2022. KPLO will be the sixth, and Falcon 9 will be the fourth.

Technically, KPLO won’t be the first payload that SpaceX has helped launch to the moon. This distinction is held by Israel’s Beresheet Moon probe, which launched a launch payload aboard a Falcon 9 geostationary communications spacecraft in 2019. The spacecraft was unsuccessful in its landing, but it entered a stable lunar orbit before things took a turn for the worse.

Instead of launching the satellite into Earth orbit as a transfer payload, the KPLO (aka Danuri) will be the only spacecraft aboard the Falcon 9, and a SpaceX rocket will send the orbiter directly into a translunar injection (TLI) orbit known as a lunar ballistic transfer. BLT is much slower than some alternative TLI orbits, but it trades speed for exceptional efficiency, making it easier to launch the Falcon 9 and ultimately giving it more useful time in lunar orbit by requiring less fuel to enter orbit.

If all goes according to plan, KPLO — which weighs about 678 kilograms at liftoff — will perform several orbit correction burns and finally enter lunar orbit in mid-December. The spacecraft is equipped with a number of cameras, network experiments and some scientific instruments, and the main purpose of the spacecraft is to explore a debris-free area for a future Korean moon lander.

The unnamed follow-up mission will be more domestic, as South Korea intends to launch it with its own Nouri rocket. After an unsuccessful first launch attempt in October 2021, Nouri successfully reached orbit in a second launch attempt in June 2022.

KPLO is one of them Up to six launches Its trip around the world is scheduled for Aug. 4, including two Chinese missions, a ULA launch off the US East Coast, a Rocket Lab mission from New Zealand, and Blue Origin’s latest subtropical tourist launch. Barring delays, KPLO will be the last launch of the day. SpaceX’s official webcast will likely begin around 6:55 PM EST (10:50 PM UTC).

SpaceX is the first to send up the moon [webcast]

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