Chandrayaan-2 leaves earth's orbit, moving towards moon

August 14, 2019 09:16

India's second moon mission 'Chandrayaan-2' left the earth's orbit early on Wednesday, 23 days after being launched, and is moving towards the moon following the successful completion of a crucial manoeuvre by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

The Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said it has carried out a manoeuvre called 'Trans Lunar Insertion' at 2:21 am on Wednesday, following which the spacecraft has successfully entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory.

The Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft is expected to reach the moon's orbit on August 20 and land on lunar surface on September 7.

"Today (August 14, 2019) after the Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI) maneuver operation, #Chandrayaan2 will depart from Earth's orbit and move towards the Moon (sic)," the ISRO tweeted.

"During the final orbit raising of the spacecraft around the earth, the liquid engine was fired for about 1203 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory," the space agency said.

Earlier, the spacecraft's orbit was progressively increased five times between July 23 and August 6.

The health of the spacecraft is being "continuously monitored" from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) with support from Indian Deep Space Network antennas at Byalalu, near Bengaluru, it said.

"Since its launch on July 22 all systems onboard Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft are performing normally," the ISRO said.

The spacecraft will approach the moon on August 20 and then the spacecraft's liquid engine will be fired again to insert it into lunar orbit, the ISRO said.

"Following this, there will be four orbit maneuvers to make the spacecraft enter its final orbit, passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the moon's surface," it said.

In a giant leap for the country's ambitious low-cost space programme, ISRO's most powerful three-stage rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 had launched the spacecraft into the orbit of the Earth on July 22 from the spaceport of Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

According to ISRO, after 13 days of Moon-bound orbit phase, the lander 'Vikram' carrying rover 'Pragyan' will separate and after another few days of orbiting will soft land on September 7 in the South Pole region of the Moon, where no country has gone so far, according to the ISRO. -- PTI

« Back to LIVE

TOP STORIES

SC seeks EC reply on fresh poll if NOTA gets majority in a constituency

The top court issued notice to the Election Commission on the PIL filed by author, activist and motivational speaker Shiv Khera.

All you need to know about VVPATs

To enhance transparency and verifiability in the poll process, the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 were amended in 2013 to introduce the use of VVPAT machines. They were first used in the by-election to the Noksen assembly seat in Nagaland.

Cong suspends Surat candidate Kumbhani for 6 years, suspects BJP ties

A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after a thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part...

Efforts to weaken India's progress must be stopped: Justice Datta on EVM row

Writing his views in a separate verdict while concurring with the opinion of Justice Sanjiv Khanna, who was heading the bench, Justice Datta said the question of reverting to "paper ballot system", on facts and in the circumstances, does...

Surya, Bumrah key to India's prospects in T20 World Cup: Yuvraj

Former India star Yuvraj Singh has identified the swashbuckling Suryakumar Yadav and pace ace Jasprit Bumrah as key to the team's prospects in the upcoming T20 World Cup owing to their ability to "change the complexion of a game" in a...