ISRO (The Indian Space Research Organization) has successfully performed the fourth lunar bound orbit maneuver for the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft on Friday.
The spacecraft is currently en route for a rendezvous with the Moon. “The duration of the maneuver was 1155 seconds. The orbit achieved is 124 km x 164 km.” ISRO updated. This is a major milestone for India’s second Moon mission; the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft had successfully entered the lunar orbit on August 20 by performing Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuver.
Once the spacecraft attains a near-circular orbit of 100 km around the Moon which is likely to happen when the next orbit maneuver is done, it will then get separated from the main spacecraft on September 3 and make a landing on the lunar surface in the early hours of September 7.
According to ISRO, the next lunar orbit maneuver is scheduled to be performed on Sunday, September 1 between 18:00-19:00 hours IST. The spacecraft is monitored continuously from the Mission Operations Complex at ISRO Telemetry.
According to ISRO, the mission objective of Chandrayaan-2 is to develop and demonstrate the key technologies for end-to-end lunar mission capability, including soft-landing and roving on the lunar surface.
