Danuri Successfully Enters Mission Orbit
The Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute announced on Dec. 28 that the Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter Danuri successfully entered its mission orbit on Dec. 27.
For one year to come, the orbiter will search for candidate landing sites for South Korea’s lunar landing module scheduled to be launched in 2032 while revolving around the moon 12 times a day. Its missions also include environmental research around the moon and space Internet technology testing. The orbiter was launched on Aug. 5 and its mission orbit is 70 to 130 km above the moon.
Payload performance check and error and distortion correction are scheduled until late January. Its missions including lunar surface, magnetic field and radiation observations will start in February.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute conducted the first lunar orbit insertion on Dec. 17 to obtain flight data and confirm stability. Two more insertion operations were carried out and the successful insertion was confirmed two days earlier than planned.