DANURI LAUNCHED TODAY

[Anchor Lead]

South Korea's first lunar orbiter was launched on Friday morning Korea time. So far, all the launch stages have been successful. The Ministry of science and ICT just announced that the Danuri entered its target trajectory successfully. Follow us to Florida to witness the moment of liftoff and the orbiter's separation from the rocket.

[Pkg]

A Falcon 9 rocket by U.S. aerospace company SpaceX, carrying the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter, also known as Danuri, blasts off and soars into the sky. The launch took place at the scheduled time of 8:08 a.m. Friday Korea time at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. During the following 40 minutes, the first-stage separation, release of the fairing and Danuri's detachment from the Falcon 9 rocket have all progressed smoothly. Spectators on the site who were able to see the rocket fly off for about 2 minutes shouted with joy and held up their cameras to capture the historic moment.

[Soundbite] (Spectator)

Danuri will take a trajectory called the "Ballistic Lunar Transfer" to reach the moon. The trip is expected to take about four and a half months. If all goes according to plan, Danuri will enter the lunar orbit and settle into an orbital altitude of 100 kilometers on December 31. The orbiter is equipped with a number of instruments including five domestically developed devices such as a high resolution camera. It also carries a ShadowCam developed by NASA which will be used to observe parts of the moon in perpetual darkness. Danuri will also carry out the world's first Internet testing for deep-space exploration along with various other experiments such as playing the BTS song "Dynamite" and sending the file back to Earth. Following the first successful step in launching Danuri, the country now faces a somber responsibility and a long journey ahead in its quest to explore the moon.