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[b]Danuri begins entering lunar mission orbit[/b] The Ministry of Science and Technology and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute that launched the lunar orbiter Danuri announced that the first lunar orbit entry maneuver was being carried out at 2:45 a.m. on Dec. 17, 2022 (2:45 p.m. EST or 1945 GMT on Dec. 16). Danuri flew a total of 5.94 million km (cumulative) along the Earth-Moon trajectory for about 4.5 months after launch on Aug. 5, and came close to a distance of about 108 km from the moon on Dec. 17. After that, from December 17th to December 28th, Danuri will go through a total of five mission orbit entry maneuvers* to settle in the lunar mission orbit (100km above the moon). In particular, this first entry maneuver is the most important maneuver to ensure that Danuri is stably captured by the moon's gravity and does not pass the moon. During this process, the thruster must be operated for about 13 minutes to reduce the speed of Danuri from about 8,000 km/h to 7,500 km/h, while accurately reaching the target position. This is a highly difficult task to enter the Danuri (7,500-8,000 km/h), which moves faster than a bullet, into the orbit of the moon, which is moving at the speed of a bullet (about 3,600 km/h). The results of the first entry maneuver are scheduled to be drawn on Dec. 19 after data analysis. Afterwards, it will go through the second to fifth entry maneuvers (Dec. 21 to Dec. 28), and finally, on December 29th, Danuri's lunar mission orbit will be confirmed.
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