Chandrayaan-2 enters lunar orbit

Bengaluru, August 20

In a major milestone for India’s Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2 successfully entered the lunar orbit on Tuesday. Lunar Orbit Insertion manoeuvre was completed successfully at 0902 hours as planned, using the onboard propulsion system, the Bengaluru headquartered space agency said in a statement.

The duration of the manoeuvre was 1,738 seconds. Following this, a series of orbit manoeuvres will be performed on Chandrayaan-2 to enable the spacecraft enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moons surface, ISRO said. Subsequently, the lander will separate from the Orbiter and enter into a 100 km X 30 km 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. 

The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex  in Bengaluru. The next Lunar bound orbit manoeuvre is scheduled for Wednesday.

“Our heart almost stopped”, was how ISRO Chairman K Sivan described the tense moment when team Chadrayaan-2 attempted to inject the spacecraft into the orbit today. — PTI

Landing on Sept 7  

• India's second lunar expedition will shed light on a completely unexplored section of the Moon, its South Polar region
• Two orbit manoeuvres would be performed on the lander before the initiation of powered descent for soft- landing on Sept 7
• The Orbiter carries eight scientific payloads for mapping the lunar surface and study the exosphere of the Moon.