Pakistan's first lunar mission, iCube Qamar, has been successfully deployed in orbit.

This has been told by a member of the core team at the Institute of Space Technology, Dr Khurram Khurshid while talking to a private tv channel.

He said the orbiter was successfully deployed in lunar orbit today  at 1:14 pm Pakistn Standard Time.

He said it will take around a week to verify the operational readiness of the orbiter's imaging system.

The first images from the moon are expected by May 15 or 16.

The iCube Qamar was launched on board China's Chang'e-6 from Hainan, China, on May 3.