Danuri is expected to enter lunar orbit in December and will spend its yearlong mission conducting research.
South Korea has joined the race to the moon with the launch of its first lunar orbiter by Elon Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX.
Danuri, which means “to enjoy the moon,” was carried Thursday on a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida by Elon Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX.
It aims to enter lunar orbit in December.
“This is a very significant milestone in the history of Korean space exploration,” Lee Sang-ryool, president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, said in a video shown before the launch.
During the year-long mission, Danuri will use six different instruments to conduct research, including surveying the lunar surface to identify potential landing sites for future missions.
One of the instruments will evaluate disruption-tolerant network-based space communications, which South Korea’s science ministry says is a world first.
Danuri, which took seven years to build, will also try to develop a wireless Internet environment to link exploration satellites or spacecraft, the ministry added.
Lunar Orbiter will stream K-pop sensation BTS’ song Dynamite to test the network.
The launch comes as South Korea accelerates its space program, aiming to send a probe to the moon by 2030 and join nine countries working on the Artemis project aimed at a lunar landing mission by 2024.
“If this mission is successful, South Korea will become the seventh country in the world to launch an unmanned probe to the moon,” an official at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute told AFP.
“This is a great moment for South Korea’s space development program, and we look forward to continuing to contribute to the global understanding of the Moon with what Danuri has to discover.”
Space launches have long been a sensitive issue on the Korean Peninsula, where North Korea faces international sanctions over its nuclear-armed ballistic missile program.
In June, South Korea launched its first domestically developed space rocket, the Nuri.
China, Japan and India have advanced space programs, while the North is among the countries with the capability to launch satellites.
In March, North Korea asked to expand its space rocket launch site to advance its space ambitions, after South Korea and the United States accused it of testing a new intercontinental ballistic missile under the pretext of launching a space vehicle
South Korea says its space program is for peaceful and scientific purposes and that any military use of the technology, such as in spy satellites, is for its defense.