May 2 (UPI) — South Korea will fly a shoebox-size cube satellite on an Artemis II test flight in April 2026 in preparation for missions to the moon, NASA and the Korea AeroSpace Administration announced Friday.
During the 10-day flight, NASA is planning to send four astronauts around the moon, the first time since Apollo 17 landed men on the lunar surface in 1972. Artimis II was originally scheduled to launch in 2024.
The Korea AeroSpace Administration formed last year.
K-RadCube, which is being developed by South Korean space startup Nara Space Technology Inc., will be mounted on the Orion stage adapter between the Space Launch System rocket and the crewed Orion spacecraft, NASA said.
Once the satellite is produced, the Korea space agency plans to deliver it to NASA by this July.
The 42-pound satellite, safely flying on its own a short distance from the stage, will monitor cosmic radiation and analyze effects on astronauts as it passes through the Van Allen radiation belts more than 2,200 miles above Earth.
The belts’ zones are composed of high-energy particles trapped by Earth’s magnetic field.
The cube payloads are “a relatively cost-effective way to potentially expand knowledge of the space environment and enable CubeSat providers to continue to refine development and integration of hardware for missions in space,” NASA said.
Yoon Young-bin, head of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, said in a news release in Korean: “Through this implementation agreement, we expect closer cooperation between the Korea Aerospace Research Institute and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the field of deep space exploration beyond the moon.”
The space agency plans to make the data obtained from K-RadCube publicly accessible.
“As we expand the scope of space exploration, understanding high-risk space environments will become increasingly important,” Choi Young-jun, deputy director of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, said. “While experiments can be conducted on Earth to simulate space conditions, this cannot surpass the value of conducting experiments in actual geostationary orbit under various variables.”
NASA Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley launched its first CubeSat, GeneSat, in December 2006. Ames has launched 16 CubeSat spacecraft varying in size from 1U, or 10x10x10 centimeters, to 3U with an additional 12 CubeSats in development or awaiting launch.
NASA has been working with other nations “to integrate and fly technology and experiments as part of the agency’s Artemis campaign,” NASA said in a news release.
In September, NASA announced an agreement with German Space Agency DLR to fly a CubeSat on Artemis II.
In April 2024, NASA and Japan signed an agreement to produce a pressurized lunar rover.
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy traveled to South Korea for international cooperation in n July 2024.
Chosun Biz in South Korea reported the signing of the K-RadCube implementation agreement was delayed because of the complete halt of new agreements between the U.S. and foreign governments since the start of the Trump administration on Jan. 20.
KAA Administrator Yoon Young-bin met with Janet Petro, the acting director general of NASA, last month during the 2025 Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo.
In 2022, Artemis I entered lunar orbit with a mannequin.
The first human moon landing in Artemis III is scheduled for mid-2027.
