South Korea’s cube satellite joins Artemis 2 mission

South Korea’s cube satellite will be launched aboard NASA’s second Artemis manned moon mission.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute announced on Tuesday that the cube satellite, K-RadCube, will be transported by air to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. K-RadCube will be launched into space aboard NASA’s Space Launch System rocket with Artemis 2. Artemis 2 will carry four astronauts in the Orion spacecraft on a mission to orbit the moon and return to Earth. K-RadCube will be South Korea’s first cube satellite launched alongside a manned spacecraft.

K-RadCube will measure space radiation in the Van Allen radiation belt, a region around Earth filled with high-energy particles. The satellite will provide data to analyze how radiation affects astronauts. It also carries semiconductor devices developed by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, which will be tested for radiation resistance in space.

Artemis 2 is scheduled to launch in April next year. Observation data from K-RadCube will be made publicly available to researchers domestically and internationally.


최지원기자 jwchoi@donga.com