Korean-Developed Solar Telescope Successfully Installed on the International Space Station

Full-scale Operation Starting Next Year

The Korea Aerospace Agency announced on the 13th that the Solar Coronagraph (hereinafter CODEX, COronal Diagnostic EXperiment), developed by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), was successfully installed on the International Space Station (ISS) around 10 a.m. on the 12th.

The yellow circle indicates CODEX installed on the International Space Station ELC3-3. Photo by NASA

CODEX was installed on the external payload platform ELC3-3 using Canadarm, the robotic arm operating on the International Space Station, from the 10th to the 12th over approximately three days, and communication was successfully established. After about one month of test operation, CODEX will carry out solar observation missions for six months up to a maximum of two years.

A coronagraph is a special telescope designed to observe the corona, the outermost region of the solar atmosphere. Because the solar surface, the photosphere, is very bright, it is difficult to observe the corona from the ground except during a total solar eclipse, and the solar disk must be artificially blocked to observe the corona.

Observation data from CODEX will be received at NASA’s White Sands Ground Terminal and transmitted via the Marshall Space Flight Center to the CODEX data centers established at the Goddard Space Flight Center and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute’s Space Environment Monitoring Office.

NASA is responsible for the direct operation and control of CODEX, while the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute plans to remotely collaborate with the Goddard Space Flight Center to establish observation plans and monitor operational status.

The Korea Aerospace Agency expects CODEX to begin full-scale observation missions starting January next year and explained that, based on the observation data, it will precisely analyze the acceleration process of the solar wind and the corona heating mechanism.