Chandrayaan-2 orbit successfully raised for fourth time

Chennai: The fourth orbit raising activity for India’s moon spacecraft Chandrayaan-2 was performed successfully at 3.27 p.m. on Friday, the ISRO said.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the orbit of the Chandrayaan-2 was raised to 277 x 89,472 km by firing the onboard motors for 646 seconds.

All spacecraft parameters are normal, it said.

The fifth orbit raising manoeuvre is scheduled between 2.30 to 3.30 p.m. on August 6.

On July 22, the Chandrayaan-2 was injected into an elliptical orbit of 170×45,475 km by India’s heavy lift rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV Mk III) in a text book style.

The spacecraft comprises three segments – the Orbiter (weighing 2,379 kg, eight payloads), the lander ‘Vikram’ (1,471 kg, four payloads) and rover ‘Pragyan’ (27 kg, two payloads).

The Indian space agency said the major activities include earth-bound manoeuvres, the trans-lunar insertion, lunar-bound manoeuvres, Vikram’s separation from Chandrayaan-2 and touch down on the moon’s South Pole.

The ISRO said the trans-lunar insertion of Chandrayaan-2, which will send it to the moon, is scheduled on August 14.

After that, the Chandrayaan-2 is scheduled to reach the moon by August 20 and the lander Vikram will land on the Earth’s sole satellite on September 7.