[Korea.net News, Sceince / Tech, November 20 2007] Korea aims to launch lunar probe in 2020

Korea plans to launch a lunar probe using an indigenous rocket in 2020, the government said Tuesday (Nov. 20).

The road map calls for a step-by-step development plan so the country can become fully independent in the building of boosters and the unmanned probe, the Ministry of Science and Technology said.

It said scientists and engineers will build and test a 300-ton Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-II) booster by 2017, and that the "standard bus module" technology needed to make the probe would be be acquired by 2016.

"Know-how to make high resolution electro-optic and synthetic aperture radar are to be acquired through the launch of multipurpose satellites in the coming years," said Lee Ki-sung, head of the ministry's space technology division.