South Korea's first lunar orbiter, Danuri, has successfully completed its first lunar orbit insertion(LOI) maneuver to enter the moon's orbit. 

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute and the science ministry made the announcement on Monday, with one researcher saying that Danuri has now become a true lunar orbiter. 

The LOI is a complex maneuver that 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. The first round, which occurred on Friday, is regarded to be the most important. 

There will be four further rounds of LOI maneuvers in the coming days, the next of which is scheduled to be carried out on Wednesday.

Whether Danuri has successfully settled into orbit is expected to be confirmed next Thursday.

Once it has successfully entered the moon's orbit, Danuri will embark on its yearlong mission to collect lunar surface data from January.