The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning announced that it has confirmed that Korea's first lunar probe, Danuri, launched in the morning of the 5th, has successfully entered the lunar transition orbit as of 2:00 pm.



According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute analyzed information such as the separation speed and separation direction received from Space X in the Danuri control room and confirmed that the Danuri was normally separated from the projectile and entered the targeted orbit.



Earlier, Danuri was separated from the SpaceX Falcon 9 projectile at an altitude of about 703 km at about 8:48 am on the same day, and succeeded in first communication with the ground station in Canberra, Australia around 9:40 am, about 92 minutes after launch.



As a result of analyzing the satellite information received by Korea Air Force, Danuri's solar panels were deployed and power generation started, communication between devices including the on-board computer was smooth, and the temperature of each device was also located within the standard range. It has been confirmed that Nuri is operating normally.



In order to minimize fuel consumption, Danuri will move toward a point where the gravity of the sun and Earth balances out, and the thruster will be activated to steer towards this point by September 2nd.



Danuri will enter the lunar orbit around December 16 after a navigation period of about four and a half months, and land 100 km above the moon, the mission orbit, on December 31.