Four months after its launch into space, South Korea's first lunar probe has reached the target orbit. The test space probe "Korea Pathfinder" is on the targeted orbit of the moon earlier than planned, said the Ministry of Science. You started to orbit the moon on Tuesday. From there it will collect data from the surface of the moon for research purposes.

The orbiter, also known as "Danuri", had previously completed three instead of five so-called swing-in maneuvers. The spacecraft's speed is reduced in order to be safely caught by the moon's gravity and to enter orbit.

The project is part of South Korea's plans for its own space exploration. A "Falcon-9" rocket from Elon Musk's private space company SpaceX was launched in August with the probe on board from the Cape Canaveral spaceport in the US state of Florida. One of the orbiter's tasks is to explore possible landing sites on the moon.

South Korea is also a signatory to NASA's Artemis program for space cooperation. The plan is to send people to destinations like the moon and Mars with a fully reusable takeoff and landing system.