Chandrayaan-2 on course to Moon; enters lunar orbit

Chandrayaan-2, India's ambitious unmanned lunar mission into the uncharted south pole of the moon, entered the moon's orbit successfully. Within days, the lander, Vikram, will separate from the Orbiter and enter into a 100km X 30km orbit around the Moon.

Chennai:The Indian space agency on Tuesday successfully completed the crucial orbit manoeuvre and put India's ambitious moon mission, Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft, into the lunar orbit.

According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) was completed successfully at 9.02 a.m. as planned using the onboard propulsion system. All the systems of Chandrayaan-2 are healthy.

"The duration of manoeuvre was 1,738 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a lunar orbit. The orbit achieved is 114km X 18,072km," the ISRO said.

Following this, a series of orbit manoeuvres will be performed on Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft to enable it to enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon's surface

Subsequently, the lander -- Vikram -- will separate from the Orbiter and enter into a 100km X 30km orbit around the Moon.

"Then, it will perform a series of complex braking manoeuvres to soft-land in the South Polar region of the Moon on September 7, 2019," ISRO said.

The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Bylalu, near the Karnataka capital.

The next Lunar bound orbit manoeuvre is scheduled on Wednesday between 12.30-1.30 p.m.

On July 22, the Chandrayaan-2 was injected into an elliptical orbit of 170X45,475 km by India's heavy-lift rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV Mk III).

The spacecraft comprises three segments - the Orbiter (weighing 2,379 kg, eight payloads), the lander 'Vikram' (1,471 kg, four payloads) and rover 'Pragyan' (27 kg, two payloads).

The Indian space agency said the major activities include Earth-bound manoeuvres, the trans-lunar insertion, lunar-bound manoeuvres, Vikram's separation from Chandrayaan-2 and touch down on the Moon's South Pole.