South Korea launched its first lunar orbiter Friday and plans to land an automated station on the moon by 2030.

This was reported by Reuters.

The Korea Pathfinder lunar orbiter was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the U.S. Space Force Station at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The launch was originally scheduled for last Wednesday, but was postponed due to an unspecified maintenance problem with the SpaceX rocket.

If the launch is successful, South Korea will become the world's seventh lunar explorer and fourth in Asia after China, Japan and India.

South Korea aims to send a probe to the moon by 2030 and join nine countries working on the Artemis project to return to the moon by 2024.

The 678-kilogram vehicle will orbit the moon in December before beginning a year-long observation mission, including finding a landing site and testing space-based Internet technology.