Anchor: The nation's first lunar probe has successfully entered its target orbit, making South Korea only the seventh country in the world to put a satellite in the moon’s orbit. President Yoon Suk Yeol hailed Danuri’s latest feat as a confirmation of the nation becoming a space and science technology powerhouse.
Moon Gwang-lip has more.

Report: 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.

President Yoon Suk Yeol celebrated the probe’s successful entry into the moon's orbit in a social media post on Wednesday, saying it has confirmed the excellence of the country's space and science technology and has made a historical mark with the nation becoming one of the world's seven space powerhouses.

He also thanked researchers involved in the development of the space vehicle for their years of hard work.

Currently, Danuri is moving around the moon every two hours from an altitude of a little over 100 kilometers above the surface and plans to embark on a yearlong mission to collect lunar surface data from January.
Moon Gwang-lip, KBS World Radio News.