KARI - Korea Aerospace Research institute

Since the historic Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969, the United States has launched a new crewed lunar mission program known as Artemis. Not only major spacefaring nations such as Europe, China, Japan, and India, but also private startups in the emerging New Space era—characterized by innovation, challenge, and opportunity—are increasingly participating in lunar exploration missions. Unlike past missions, space-leading countries now regard the Moon as an undeveloped domain of immense potential, aiming to establish leadership in space development through lunar exploration. With advanced space technologies, these nations are expanding their development scope from Earth to the Moon and Mars and using space exploration to advance cutting-edge space technologies.

Through space exploration, the U.S. aims to maintain its leadership in space development while advancing its scientific, security, and economic interests. Neighboring countries such as Japan, China, and India are actively conducting missions to the Moon, comets, and Mars. Lunar exploration drives the development of advanced technologies, such as trajectory and control systems for lunar flight, orbital insertion, landing, sample return, lunar rovers capable of withstanding harsh space environments, nuclear power sources, and space Internet. These technologies are expected to accelerate space industrialization and drive job creation. The global resurgence in lunar interest stems from the Moon's potential as a source of valuable resources and its strategic importance as a staging post for deep space missions, including those to Mars. Both crewed and uncrewed missions have confirmed the presence of valuable resources on the Moon, including water, helium-3 (He-3), uranium, and rare earth elements.

To date, only the U.S., the former Soviet Union, and China have successfully achieved uncrewed lunar landings. Only six countries—including the U.S., the former USSR, Japan, Europe, China, and India—have successfully deployed lunar orbiters. Without timely engagement in space exploration, Korea risks falling significantly behind in global space development.

Building on its accumulated aerospace technology, Korea is now advancing its space exploration agenda.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) launched Korea’s first lunar orbiter, Danuri (KPLO), on August 5, 2022, in collaboration with international partners. It successfully entered its target orbit—100 km above the lunar surface—on December 26, 2022. Following a successful one-year primary mission and one-year extension, Danuri entered a lower lunar orbit of 60 km on February 19, 2025, enabling more detailed observations of the lunar surface.
Thanks to its excellent observation performance and remaining fuel reserves, Danuri’s mission duration has been extended from its original end date in 2023 to the end of 2027. Looking ahead, Korea plans to develop the Next-Generation Launch Vehicle—NURI’s successor—to deliver a lunar lander to the Moon by 2032.

다Danuri (KPLO) was launched aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket on August 5, 2022. Using the Ballistic Lunar Transfer (BLT) / Weak Stability Boundary (WSB) trajectory—which takes advantage of the gravitational force of the Sun, Earth, and other celestial bodies—Danuri successfully entered lunar orbit on December 26, 2022.
With its mission extended by two years, Danuri (KPLO) is scheduled to continue scientific operations orbiting the Moon until December 2025.