The Korean Aerospace Research Institute and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute have announced that a solar coronagraph, jointly developed with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), named CODEX (Coronal Diagnostic Experiment), is set to be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, on November 5th at 11:29 AM Korean time.
The coronagraph is a type of telescope that can observe the Sun’s corona, the outermost part of the Sun’s atmosphere, which is less than one-millionth of the brightness of the Sun’s surface.
CODEX is expected to solve the solar research mysteries of corona heating and solar wind acceleration by providing not only the shape of the solar corona but also the temperature and speed measurements simultaneously in a two-dimensional image.
CODEX has completed its pre-launch function checks from July 29 to August 2 and is currently mounted on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle, awaiting launch.
After the launch, it is expected to take about one week for CODEX to be installed on the International Space Station (ISS).
Thirteen hours after the launch, the cargo ship carrying CODEX will dock with the ISS, and it will be installed on the External Logistics Carrier platform (ELC3-3) outside the ISS via a robotic arm. It will then conduct observations for 55 minutes during each of the 90-minute orbits the ISS makes around Earth.
The mission operation and control of CODEX will be performed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, while the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute will receive and monitor the information remotely.
Kang Hyun-woo, head of the space science exploration mission design program at the Korean Aerospace Research Institute, stated, “We will do our best to carry out the CODEX mission successfully and advance our stature as a major player in solar research and space weather forecasting.”
[Photo Source: Yonhap News / Provided by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute]