The second de-orbiting maneuver of the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has been carried out successfully.
Inching towards achieving a historic soft-landing on the lunar surface. – ISRO
With this maneuver’s help, the Vikram Lander’s required orbit to commence its descent towards the lunar surface is finally achieved. The de-orbiting or retro-orbiting maneuver happened for nine-second that was executed at 3.42 am the space agency said.
The first de-orbiting maneuver for the spacecraft was carried out; a day after lander ‘Vikram’ was separated from the orbiter which is at an orbit of 35 km perigee and 101 km apogee. According to ISRO “Both the Orbiter and Lander are healthy,” the space agency said.
Additionally, ISRO also carried out another maneuver of the orbiter on Tuesday, something which is not yet officially announced. Sources say that the orbiter’s orbit was further reduced after a 36-second burn of the onboard propulsion systems.
ISRO has been continuously monitoring the health of the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) spacecraft at ISRO Telemetry with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN). Vikram is expected to touch the lunar surface between 1.30am and 2.30am on September 7.
