Artemis 2 Approaches Far Side of Moon; Korea's CubeSat Loses Contact

Farthest Human Spaceflight in History · 'K-RadCube' Signal Not Detected

NASA's crewed lunar flyby spacecraft Artemis 2, successfully launched on June 1 (local time), will attempt a close lunar flyby at 2:45 p.m. on June 6 (3:45 a.m. KST on June 7). The spacecraft will reach its closest point to the Moon at 7:02 p.m. (7:02 a.m. KST), approaching within 6,400 kilometers of the lunar far side.

The spacecraft will remain behind the Moon for approximately 40 minutes. During this period, communication between the spacecraft and ground control will be cut off. When the astronauts reach their target point, they will set the record for the farthest human spaceflight in history. The previous record has been held by Apollo 13 since 1970.

NASA said on June 4 that "Artemis 2 has passed more than halfway to its destination, the Moon." This means the spacecraft has entered the Moon's gravitational sphere. However, Artemis 2 will not land on the Moon. It will orbit the Moon for approximately 10 days before returning to Earth.

Meanwhile, South Korea's CubeSat "K-RadCube," which had been loaded aboard Artemis 2, was deployed at an altitude of approximately 40,000 kilometers on launch day but failed to establish communication with the ground. The Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) and its subsidiary Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) announced that they continued attempting to contact the satellite at 2:30 p.m. on June 4 but were unable to detect a signal.

K-RadCube is a 12-unit (U; 1U measures 10 cm on each side) satellite roughly the size of a shoebox, weighing 19 kilograms. Its mission was to measure space radiation in the Van Allen radiation belts surrounding Earth at various altitudes to support future crewed exploration. The satellite carried semiconductors from Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) and SK hynix (000660.KS).