New Delhi: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that the fourth lunar bound orbit manoeuvre for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully on Friday. It was done using the onboard propulsion system.
The orbit manoeuvre began at 6:18 pm (Indian Standard Time) and took 1155 seconds (approximately 19.25 minutes) to complete. The orbit achieved was124 km x 164 km, said ISRO. All spacecraft parameters are normal.
Taking to Twitter, ISRO announced, "Fourth Lunar bound orbit maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today (August 30, 2019) at 1818 hrs IST." ISRO also posted a picture depicting the fourth manoeuvre of the spacecraft, inching closer to the lunar surface. In the picture, ISRO stated that four manoeuvres were done, and there was just one more left.
#ISRO
Fourth Lunar bound orbit maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today (August 30, 2019) at 1818 hrs IST.For details please visit https://t.co/s4I7OIOF5R pic.twitter.com/ld4wbTMuBq
— ISRO (@isro) August 30, 2019
The next lunar-bound orbit manoeuvre is scheduled on September 1, 2019, between 6 pm and 7 pm IST, to enter it into its final orbit passing over lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon's surface.
On August 28, the third lunar bound orbit manoeuvre for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully.
On the morning of August 20, Chandrayaan-2 successfully entered the Moon’s orbit. The ISRO in a statement confirmed the Lunar Orbit Insertion of Chandrayaan-2 at 9:02 am.
A statement released by ISRO read, “Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) manoeuvre was completed successfully today (August 20, 2019) at 0902 hrs IST as planned, using the onboard propulsion system. The duration of manoeuvre was 1738 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a Lunar orbit. The orbit achieved is 114 km x 18072 km.”
On July 22, the Rs 978 crore-Chandrayaan-2 was launched into space by India`s heavy-lift rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV Mk III). The mission would carry out a soft landing on the moon on September 7.
