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Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, which has been going around the earth on its way to the moon, moved into a higher orbit this afternoon, after firing its onboard propulsion system. This was the third time that the spacecraft has raised its orbit after bring put in an earth-bound elliptical orbit about 17 minutes after its launch last Monday.
The latest manoeuvre has put Chandrayaan-2 in an orbit that, at its nearest, is 276 km from the earth’s surface, and 71,792 km at the furthest. Since July 26, the spacecraft was moving in an orbit of 251 x 54,829 km.
Read | Fact Check: No, Chandrayaan-2 did not send ‘first photographs’ of earth
The spacecraft will raise its orbit two more times, on August 2 and August 6, to reach the orbit of 221 x 143585 km where it will remain till August 14 before breaking away from the earth’s orbit and moving towards the moon.
“Today after performing the third orbit-raising maneuver, we are now 3 steps closer to the moon !!!” the Indian Space Research Organisation said in a tweet.
Chandrayaan-2 is scheduled to enter a lunar orbit on August 20, and its lander and rover would descend on the moon’s surface on September 7.
