Watch live as SpaceX attempts its first direct launch to the moon

South Korea launches its first lunar mission and SpaceX has been called in to help. You can watch this historic launch live right here.

Hard to believe, but the upcoming launch marks the first time SpaceX has sent a payload directly into lunar ballistic transfer orbit. And as for South Korea, this marks its first mission to the moon and adds (fingers crossed) to a very small list of nations doing so.

The payload you jour is the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO), also known as Danuri, on a mission managed by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket is scheduled to launch at 7:08 p.m. ET from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. Live coverage begins 15 minutes before launch, which you can watch below SpaceX or at the feed below.

To be fair, SpaceX has sent an object to the moon before, namely Israel’s Beresheet lunar lander (the crashed on the lunar surface in 2019), but that was done as part of a routine Falcon 9 ride-along mission to geosynchronous transfer orbit around Earth. Once in space, Beresheet used his own power to do so gradually increase its heighteventually enter its lunar orbit (and the failure of the mission had nothing to do with SpaceX). In addition, the private company previously sent objects deep into the solar systemincluding one red tesla roadsterbut never before has it sent anything directly to our beloved moon.

That’s set change today. SpaceX reports an 80 percent chance of favorable weather. Should the launch need to be scrubbed, the company will try again tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. ET.

After the stages separate, the first stage will try to land on the Just read the instructions Drone ship currently based in the Atlantic. This particular booster has already made several successful landings. Once in space and about 34 minutes into the mission, the second stage will restart, shutting down the engine when the mission clock reaches 35:15. Danuri will depart five minutes later and begin its journey to the moon.

The 1,100-pound (500-kilogram) probe will enter polar lunar orbit in mid-December, where it will operate 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface for at least a year. Should the mission be extended, KPLO will descend to an orbit 43 miles (70 km) above the moon. A post von Teslarati explains why it will take so long for Danuri to reach its target orbit:

Rather than launching the satellite into Earth orbit as a ride-along, KPLO will be the only spacecraft aboard Falcon 9, and the SpaceX rocket will send the orbiter directly onto a type of translunar injection (TLI) orbit known as a lunar ballistic transfer . A BLT is much slower than some alternative TLI trajectories, but it trades speed for exceptional efficiency, making launch easier for Falcon 9 and ultimately giving the orbiter more useful time around the moon since less propellant is needed to get into orbit to get.

The mission’s main objectives are to “develop indigenous technologies for lunar exploration, demonstrate a ‘space internet’ and conduct scientific surveys of the lunar environment, topography and resources, and identify potential landing sites for future missions”. according to to NASA. The space agency provided a highly sensitive camera for the mission, while South Korea developed its other four instruments: a lunar terrain imager, a wide-angle polarimetric camera (referred to as a PolCam), a magnetometer, and a gamma-ray spectrometer. Together, these five devices weigh no more than 40 kg.

A contingent of NASA-sponsored scientists will participate in the analysis of incoming mission data. Scientists at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, will use the PolCam to study pyroclastic deposits on the moon – deposits of ash formed long ago after violent volcanic eruptions. “Such ash deposits may originate deep in the lunar interior and contain volatile materials including water,” said an emailed SSI statement. “They therefore have the potential to provide information about the nature of the lunar interior and represent a potential resource for future human exploitation of the lunar resources.”

We wish South Korea the best of luck on this important mission as another nation attempts to establish a presence around the moon.

More: These failed missions to the moon remind us that space is tough.