ISRO performs 2nd lunar-bound orbit manoeuvre for Chandrayaan-2

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the spacecraft was functioning normally.

Pune | August 22, 2019 02:58 AM IST

2 min read

Chandrayaan 2: What all happened since midnight?

Chandrayaan-2 moved into an elliptical orbit that, at its nearest point from the Moon, was 118 km from the lunar surface, and 4,412 km at its farthest.

CHANDRAYAAN-2, which entered a lunar orbit on Tuesday, moved into a lower orbit around the Moon on Wednesday. In an orbit-lowering manoeuvre that lasted for over 20 minutes on Wednesday, Chandrayaan-2 moved into an elliptical orbit that, at its nearest point from the Moon, was 118 km from the lunar surface, and 4,412 km at its farthest.

When it had entered the lunar orbit on Tuesday, Chandrayaan-2 had placed itself in an orbit that was 114 km from the Moon at its nearest and 18,072 km at its farthest.

Explained | Milestone for ISRO’s Chandrayaan-2, Moon in sight

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the spacecraft was functioning normally.

Chandrayaan-2 is India’s first attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon. The lander and rover components of Chandrayaan-2, named Vikram and Pragyaan, respectively, are scheduled to make a soft landing in the early hours of September 7. But before that, Chandrayaan-2 composite module has to move much closer to the Moon, in a near-circular orbit of 100 km x 100 km. For this, it would have to carry out three more orbit -lowering manoeuvres.

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