South Korea's first lunar orbiter, Danuri, has successfully entered the moon’s orbit.

The science ministry and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute(KARI) confirmed on Wednesday that Danuri achieved lunar orbit on Tuesday, 145 days after being launched into space from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on a Falcon 9 rocket developed by U.S. aerospace company SpaceX.

According to the ministry and KARI, the achievement comes after Danuri conducted its third and last lunar orbit insertion(LOI) maneuver to enter the moon's orbit at around 11:06 a.m. on Monday.

Although KARI planned to conduct five LOIs, lunar orbit was achieved with just three rounds of the maneuver, which involves lowering the speed of the spacecraft while committing it to the gravity of the moon in order to achieve a lunar orbit altitude of 100 kilometers.

Currently, Danuri is moving around the moon every two hours from an altitude of a little over 100 kilometers above the surface.

Having entered the moon's orbit, Danuri will now embark on a yearlong mission to collect lunar surface data from January.