Chandrayaan-2 Closer to Moon With 4th Orbit Maneuver; September 7 Landing on Track

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The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Friday evening claimed to have successfully completed the fourth lunar-bound orbit change for the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft. In a statement posted on its official website, the agency said that the spacecraft began its maneuver at 6.18PM, using its on-board propulsion system for 1,155 seconds.

“Fourth Lunar bound orbit maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today (August 30, 2019) beginning at 1818 hrs IST as planned, using the onboard propulsion system. The duration of the manoeuvre was 1155 seconds. The orbit achieved is 124 km x 164 km”, said ISRO. According to the post, all parameters are normal and the next lunar-bound orbit maneuver is scheduled for September 1 before landing in the lunar South Pole on September 7.

Chandrayaan 2, India’s high-profile lunar mission, lifted off on July 22 aboard the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III) from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, a week after a technical glitch resulted in the postponement of the launch. The mission comes 11 years after the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO’s) first successful lunar mission, the Chandrayaan 1, which orbited the moon more than 3,400 times and was operational for 312 days until August 29, 2009.

The spacecraft shared its first pictures of Earth from space on August 4 before entering the Lunar Orbit on August 20. Following the Chandrayaan-2’s entry into the moon’s orbit, ISRO released a fresh set of photographs of the surface of the moon and its craters taken by the Terrain Mapping Camera-2 on the moon-bound spacecraft. The pictures were taken on August 23 at an altitude of about 4,375 kms showing impact craters like Jackson, Mitra, Mach and Korolev.

With inputs from IANS

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