NASA takes photos of a “surfboard” in lunar orbit

The US space agency NASA captured a photo of a surfboard-shaped object near the surface of the moon last month, according to images published by the space agency on Friday (5).

NASA said the images, taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), captured several images from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute's Danori Lunar Orbiter, as the two passed each other in parallel but in opposite directions between March 5 and 6.

Danori is South Korea's first spacecraft to land on the moon, while LRO has been orbiting Earth's natural satellite for 15 years.

Danori, derived from a combination of the words “dal”, which represents “moon”, and “nuri”, which means “enjoy”, left the United States powered by a SpaceX rocket in August and reached lunar orbit in December, following an extended route intended to save fuel. .

Images are distorted due to the very fast relative velocities between them and the LRO. The result is an image that blurs the Korean spacecraft up to 10 times its size in the opposite direction of its travel – with an exposure time as short as the LRO camera.

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