In 2024, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute or KASA sends a crewed mission to the Moon to
be part of the countries that have successfully landed on it. Unfortunately during that mission,
all the astronauts die due to a technical glitch that makes the spacecraft explode when it tries
to land, leaving everyone in South Korea shocked and disappointed. Five years later in 2029, South
Korea is attempting to send three astronauts to the Moon again, hoping to regain their reputation.
The three astronauts are Commander Lee, Cho, and Hwang, and they get intense training to prepare
for the trip, not wanting a repeat of last time. Before they take off, the astronauts share a few
words with the public: Lee says he will decide the name for his unborn baby girl when he is on
the mission while looking at the Earth, Cho is going for his wife and son, and Hwang is going
to fulfill his dead father’s dreams. It turns out he is the son of one of the astronauts from the
previous mission. When the day comes, the ship is launched successfully, however they soon are
hit by solar winds that cause heavy damage, bringing down the electronic control unit and
the navigation system. The astronauts have lost contact with the control room and the Minister of
Science and Technology has to appear on national television to calm down all the worried citizens
while the press just makes it worse with theories of doom. Meanwhile Lee and Cho are checking the
spacecraft from the outside since they believe that they would be able to repair it. Hwang,
who has limited knowledge about the technology, is getting very paranoid, but his two partners tell
him to stay calm as they assure him that they have everything under control. The astronauts
notice that there is a leak in the fuel tank, and before they can even process this information,
there is a huge explosion in which Cho immediately loses his life, but Commander Lee manages to hold
on to his hatchet and not get blown away by the explosion. The space research center gets
communications with the ship back only for a few minutes and soon they lose it again,
but they become aware that they can not read Cho’s vitals. Hwang desperately insists on
trying to go out to help, but Lee points out that opening the hatch will only kill him. Lee realizes
that he will not be able to make it out of there alive, and in his last moments, he asks Hwang to
reboot the full system power so that he can get the communications on and makes him promise he
will return safely. Hwang screams as he watches Commander Lee open his hatch and disappear into
oblivion forever. Moments later, communications are rebooted and a devastated Hwang appears on the
screen to deliver the bad news. The KASA director tells him to wait while they look for a solution,
and the Minister panics, not wanting to lose another mission. The scientists discuss their
options and accept they have no choice but to bring back the director of the last mission
because he designed most of their equipment and protocols. The previous director is Kim, who is
currently with intern Han-Byeol on a mountain doing some hunting because he has been staying
away from KASA after he failed the last mission, nowadays he works for an observatory. The animals
they are after run away when the KASA helicopter suddenly appears above them, and they take the
talk to the observatory, where Kim immediately refuses to come back. However he changes his
mind when he learns that Hwang is the son of one of the astronauts from the last mission. In the
control room, the scientists are getting worried because the temperature in the ship is getting
really low. As the Minister starts to panic again, Kim arrives and directs Hwang on how to make only
one thruster move the ship into lunar orbit. The plan is a success and as the temperature rises in
the spacecraft, it also starts spinning in orbit, which is much safer. Then Kim tells Hwang to rest
while they look for a solution to bring him back, and a confused Hwang asks the control room who he
is talking to. When Hwang hears the name, he immediately has flashbacks of his father’s
funeral and Kim’s presence in it. This causes him to reach for the other astronauts’ family photos,
knowing exactly how they may be feeling now. In the meantime, Kim calls his ex-wife Moon-Young,
who is now working at NASA. Unfortunately she informs him that NASA refuses to help,
seeing the situation as a lost cause. After hanging up, Kim is found by Han-byeol,
who informs him that everyone is panicking because Hwang is separating the lander without permission.
Kim rushes to talk to Hwang to say this is a bad idea, but Hwang refuses to listen. He doesn’t want
to put his life in Kim’s hands because he failed to save his father, and he has already made his
decision: he will land on the Moon at any cost for the astronauts who had lost their lives, for his
father, and for South Korea. As the South Korean citizens and the press go crazy over the news,
Han-byeol tells Kim of the chance of a meteor shower, and Kim asks her to keep an eye on it
while he works on a plan for repairs. Meanwhile the scientists try their best to guide Hwang, who
is depending on autopilot to do this. Kim can’t stop thinking of all the work he did with the
previous mission and the day he met a much younger Hwang, terrified that this landing will fail like
last time. Everyone gets nervous when the lander begins gaining speed, but thankfully it lands
successfully. People in South Korea celebrate, and when Hwang finally steps onto the Moon’s surface,
he takes his fellow astronauts’ uniforms plus a picture of the crew to place them on the surface.
He also sets up the South Korean flag. Afterward, he goes out on the rover to fulfill the mission
of collecting samples while the drone keeps track of the surroundings. Kim discusses options with
the scientist team to repair the system while the South Korean President appears to give a speech,
desperately asking NASA to help them bring Hwang back. Moon-young tries to convince
the NASA higher-ups, but they refuse because of the possible meteor shower and say Moon-youn's
judgement is blurred by her feelings for her ex-husband. At that moment, Han-byeol sees some
worrisome readings on her tablet and rushes to tell Kim that NASA is correct, the meteor shower
is coming too close to the Moon. Back to Hwang, he is proud to report that he has collected all the
samples including ice from underneath the Moon’s surface. He also thinks that the readings must’ve
made a mistake because he has been watching sky activity and nothing appeared on the radar.
However soon the area starts shaking and the meteors begin falling around Hwang, sending him
flying. The scientists order him to get inside the lander quickly and Hwang tries to escape on
the rover, but a particularly big meteor lands and creates an explosion that gets the vehicle stuck
inside a crater. Against the director’s wishes, Kim asks a scientist to reset the spacecraft’s
module system with a new code he’s designed, which effectively repairs the module and brings
back power to the ship. Meanwhile Hwang calls for his drone, which he uses to lift himself out of
the crater. He quickly runs among the falling meteors and manages to get inside the lander
just in time. The lander takes off successfully, and the next step is to connect it to the command
module. They must depend on autopilot again to do the docking and thankfully it goes well,
but before Hwang can transfer to the main ship, a meteor hits the spacecraft, destroying a big
part of it and sending it into a speedy fall. Kim tells Hwang to change to manual mode, but
the lander is shaking too much and he can’t reach the controls. Suddenly Hwang accidentally inhales
ammonia and starts feeling dizzy so he reaches for his helmet, but it is too late: Hwang passes out,
the lander crashes, and the control room loses all communications. The computer can’t find
Hwang’s vitals either, and after four hours of failed attempts to reconnect, Hwang is officially
declared dead. While news outlets cover yet another failed mission, Kim returns home and
because he can not deal with another failure, he tries to self-delete, but Han-byeol stops him just
in time. At that moment, Kim gets a message from Moon-young telling him that Hwang is still alive,
which she knows because NASA’s station intercepted the radio messages that Hwang is trying to send
to his own space station. Moon-young also gives Kim the code to access the frequency, so he and
Han-byeol rush to grab some old equipment from the observatory and manage to hear Hwang’s SOS
message. Han-byeol immediately begins recording it while Kim asks Hwang for his status, learning
that he doesn’t have much power or oxygen left and that the meteor shower is still going. Kim tells
him to stay in the lander while he finds a way to help, and at that moment, a helicopter appears. It
turns out Han-byeol called an emergency service saying Kim was dying of a heart attack just so
he would be picked up quickly. The helicopter takes Kim back to the KASA headquarters while
Han-byeol posts Hwang’s SOS message on Youtube, which immediately goes viral. While Hwang does his
best to take care of his wounds with whatever he has available, Han-byeol keeps him company
by talking to him through the comms. However she only ends up annoying him when she over-analyzes
him as if she knew him just because she read a few online articles. Thanks to the audio going viral,
people all over the world are supporting Hwang and pressuring NASA into sending help. The NASA
higher-ups want to know who leaked the information and immediately get suspicious of Moon-young, but
before they can check her phone, they receive a call from the White House. After lots of work from
KASA, they manage to get communications working with the lander again. However the minister is not
happy, saying there is no point in reviving Hwang in the eye of the public if they will kill him
again later because they can not bring him back. Suddenly the meteor shower begins getting worse
and Kim wants to move Hwang to a safer place, he just doesn’t know where. At that moment good news
arrive from the USA: the White House has ordered NASA to help Hwang, which is already reaching news
outlets all over the world too. The American lunar station and Moon-young get in contact with KASA to
start planning the details of the rescue mission, but at the NASA office, Moon-young is being kicked
out and sent to the disciplinary committee. They only are allowing her to stay for this last
mission to look good for the White House. After Moon-young warns them they will only have one try
to pull this off, the American station gets on the way so that they can dock with the South Korean
ship. Hwang tries to launch the lander again, but after lots of shaking, it unfortunately fails to
take off because it doesn’t have enough space and is not aligned correctly. Kim tries to tell Hwang
to abort, but it is too late: the lander falls on the ground and begins rolling around for several
minutes until it falls into a crater again and the docking port is destroyed. The American station
announces they can not maintain the velocity and stand by anymore, so Moon-young has no choice
but to cancel the rescue mission. A desperate Kim tries to give Hwang a few ideas to get the
lander going, but Hwang has given up and powers down all systems, including the oxygen supply.
Kim tries to tell Hwang not to be like his father, but Hwang uses the moment to make a confession: he
has seen the truth on his father’s will. It turns out that his father knew a month before the first
Moon mission that the engine had faults and yet decided to go on the mission anyway because he was
that hungry for success. However Kim interrupts him, saying he doesn’t know the full story. Kim
asks Hwang to forgive his father because it wasn’t his fault: a day before the launch,
his father did tell Kim about the faulty engine and asked for a two-month delay. But since the
chances of an accident were minimal, a furious Kim went ahead with the launch anyway because
the mission had been postponed so many times that he could not do it again. Crying his heart out,
Kim begs Hwang to come back. Everyone is starting to lose hope but suddenly the computers announce
the oxygen supply in the ship is back on. Hwang has finally forgiven his dad and is ready to go,
so he asks for directives. Meanwhile Moon-young also hears the whole thing and decides to ignore
orders to get in contact with KASA again and make a new plan since she will be fired anyway. Kim is
worried about the broken dock, but Moon-young trusts he can find a solution. Kim rushes back
to the control room and together with the scientists, they guide Hwang to go outside
and manually activate the thrusters. Now that he is in an area with more room, this allows
him to launch the command module successfully. Meanwhile Moon-young locks herself in her office
and establishes contact with the astronauts at the American station. She tells them that there is no
directive from the government, but she appeals to them by reminding them that they are all from
different countries yet they are all astronauts, so a call for help from a fellow astronaut should
not be ignored because of nationalities. Her call is interrupted when the higher-ups finally
break into the room and take her away. Back to Hwang, he notices that the ship is reaching the
brighter side of the moon but that landing will be impossible, so he makes a plan. After grabbing all
the memories from the other astronauts, he straps the drone around his body. Kim orders him to open
the hatch and jump, and after lots of hesitation and dread, Hwang steps off the launcher. He floats
around for several minutes and once he is close enough to the surface, he activates the drone,
which shakes him around a bit until they hit the ground. Communications are suddenly lost
and everyone in the control room assumes the worst. At that moment, the American station
announces they are coming closer to execute the rescue. Thankfully the drone is still working and
manages to record Hwang’s face when he wakes up, so he hears the message and manages to send his
coordinates to the rescuers. Moments later, images of Hwang being taken care of by the
American crew reach every news outlet and everyone around the world celebrates. After this success,
the KASA director wants Kim to come back to his job, but Kim refuses and leaves to return
to his observatory. When Hwang returns to South Korea, the Minister receives him with excitement,
pretending he always believed in him. The country considers him a hero, but after a mild speech,
Hwang concentrates on carrying the memory of his fellow astronauts. He visits the families
and gives them all the items he rescued from the ship, telling Lee’s wife that the commander had
already chosen a name for the baby and Cho’s son that his dad is now on the Moon. A month later,
it is announced that the International Space Committee is allowing South Korea to join as the
ninth country. It is also revealed that Moon-young has become the first female director of NASA,
which was an order sent from the White House. Meanwhile in the observatory, Kim is receiving
a teacher and her class of excited kids to learn about space. One of the employees is dressed as
an astronaut to teach them how the suit works, but when he removes his helmet, Kim is shocked to see
it is actually Hwang. Both men share a salute in respect for what they went through together.