Live: NASA probe reaches lunar orbit

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has been captured by the moon's gravity about midway through a planned 40-minute engine burn.

"We're there," said Mike Wargo, NASA's chief lunar scientist, in a mission control center at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "In here, the excitement is just palpable."

The spacecraft's orbit insertion burn is scheduled to continue until 6:27 a.m. to establish the right trajectory for a two-month commissioning phase, when its seven science instruments and operating systems will be brought online.