Chandrayaan orbiter doing extremely well: ISRO chief

Bhubaneswar, September 21

The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter’s ensemble of eight scientific instruments was performing very well and is expected to continue its stellar work for about seven and a half years, ISRO Chairman K Sivan said here today.

As the prospects of re-establishing contact with Chandrayaan-2’s ‘Vikram’ lander have virtually ended after the conclusion of 14 Earth days, ISRO said it will take up a study to ascertain what exactly happened to it.

Sivan told reporters in Bhubaneshwar, “...first, we have to understand what exactly happened to the lander.” He said the orbiter with eight scientific instruments is doing very well, adding “each instrument is doing exactly whatever we wanted.

Though the orbiter was initially planned for only a year, he said in view of “very optimum mission planning, we are able to get seven and a half years of life time. So we are going to get seven and a half years of science not one year.” — PTI