S.Korea to unveil lunar lander, rover development plans

Seoul (IANS) The government plans to unveil a "space economy roadmap" within this year, including the development of a lunar lander and a lunar rover, the presidential science secretary said.

"In order to leap forward as a space power, we will draw up space development strategies and put them into action immediately," Cho Seong-kyung, presidential secretary in charge of science and technology affairs, told reporters.

The "future space economy roadmap" includes development of a next-generation space vehicle by 2031 and commencing moon lander development by 2024, the official said.

South Korea has been pushing forward with its space programmes.

Last week, the country's first lunar orbiter, known as Danuri, successfully entered its planned trajectory toward the moon.

In June, the country successfully launched a homegrown space rocket, Nuri, in the second attempt to put satellites into orbit.

South Korea confirmed that the orbiter was generating power with its solar panels and all onboard devices were functioning properly after being launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in the US.

Danuri also made its first communication with a Deep Space Network antenna of NASA in Australia's Canberra, according to the Ministry of Science and Information and Communications Technology (ICT).