South Korea to launch lunar probe

South Korea will launch its first lunar probe in 2020, joining an intensifying Asian space race after recent missions to the moon by China and Japan, the government said today.

The plan is part of the government’s Space Development Roadmap that also aims to put a satellite into orbit on a rocket to be developed from homegrown technology by 2017, the Science and Technology Ministry said.

A second lunar probe, which would land on the moon – unlike the first one that would only orbit the moon – is to be launched in 2025.

The announcement came after Japan launched a lunar probe in September and China last month, heating up the space rivalry in Asia. India was planning to send a lunar probe into space in April.

In June, the South Korean ministry announced that it would spend £1.9bn (€2.6bn) in the next 10 years to advance its space technology enough to build its own satellites and rockets. The ministry did not give a cost estimate for the moon probe project.

South Korea lags behind China and Japan in space exploration. Since 1992, the country has launched 11 satellites, mostly for space and ocean observation and communication, but all of them were carried aboard foreign-made rockets launched from other countries.

South Korea has been developing a two-stage rocket with Russia, dubbed the Korea Space Launch Vehicle, to carry an aerospace and atmospheric study satellite into space at the end of 2008.