Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K Sivan on Tuesday expressed happiness over Chandrayaan-2 successfully entering the Moon’s orbit. Addressing a press conference after the spacecraft entered the lunar orbit, Sivan said that the next major event is September 2, when the Vikram lander will be separated from the orbiter.
“The next major event will happen on 2nd September when the lander will be separated from the orbiter. On 3rd September we will have a small maneuver for about three seconds to ensure that the systems of the lander are running normally,” said the ISRO chairman.
Sivan said that the Chandrayaan-2 mission had crossed “a major milestone” as it entered the lunar orbit successfully. He said, “Chandrayaan-2 mission crossed a major milestone today, the precise lunar orbit insertion maneuver was carried out at 9 am for about 30 minutes and Chandrayaan 2 was precisely inserted in the defined orbit.”
“Now the Chandrayaan-2 is going around Moon with an inclination of 88 degrees. In due course this orbit will be brought down and at that time the inclination will achieve 90 degrees,” Sivan added.
The ISRO chief mentioned that the previous dates that had been important in the journey of Chandrayaan-2 were July 22, August 14 and August 19.
Sivan said, “We are going to have four more manoeuvres and through this the orbit will be reduced. On September 2 the lander will be separated from the orbiter. On September 4 we will do the real manoeuvre of the lander for about six seconds. For three days we'll check the systems and on September 7 at 1.40 am the lander will begin propulsion and at 1.55 am it will land.”
“Two hours after this the ramp will touch the ground and 3.10 hours later the solar panel will be deployed and then the rover will start from the lander and then at 4 hours the rover will touch the surface,” he added.
