Korea and US Launch Solar Coronagraph to ISS for Space Weather Study

The Korean national space agency and NASA are sending a jointly developed solar coronagraph to the ISS to study the sun's corona. Named CODEX, this project aims to understand solar winds, offering insights into space weather. The mission will launch from Florida aboard Space X's Falcon 9.

Seoul, South Korea — The Republic of Korea's national space agency announced plans to launch a solar coronagraph, jointly developed with the United States, to the International Space Station (ISS) to study the sun's outer atmosphere, a project reported by Yonhap News Agency today. The initiative, known as the Coronal Diagnostic Experiment (CODEX), is a collaborative endeavor between the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA) and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Set for delivery on Space X's Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Kennedy Space Center, CODEX aims to observe the corona and solar wind properties over 55-minute durations per 90-minute orbit of Earth. As the first coronagraph worldwide designed to detail the solar wind's temperature and velocity, along with its density, this scientific instrumentation constitutes part of a bilateral solar research project set to enhance our understanding of solar winds and advance space weather forecasts.

KASA highlighted the importance of studying solar wind—a continuous flow of particles and magnetic fields ejected by the sun's outermost atmospheric layer—in assessing space weather impacts on Earth, such as telecommunications and satellites.

(With inputs from agencies.)