S.Korea's 1st lunar orbiter makes contact with NASA 90 min after launch

ANKARA (AA) – South Korea's first lunar orbiter successfully communicated with a ground station after 90 minutes of its launch on Friday, local media said.

"The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter -- also known as Danuri -- made its first communication with a Deep Space Network antenna of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Canberra, Australia, about 90 minutes after being launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral in the United States," Yonhap News Agency said, citing the Ministry of Science and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) statement.

The launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday but was postponed due to some maintenance issues, according to the report.

Danuri is South Korea's first space mission to travel beyond Earth's orbit.

The country launched its first domestically made space rocket in June, after a botched attempt in October last year.

* Writing by Islamuddin Sajid.