The spacecraft will approach the moon on August 20 and then the spacecraft’s liquid engine will be fired again to insert it into lunar orbit, the ISRO said
BENGALURU: Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI) manoeuvre of the Chadrayaan 2 which will put the spacecraft into the Lunar Transfer Trajectory (LTT), a direct trajectory towards the moon, was held on the early hours of Wednesday.
All eyes were set on the spacecraft, as Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K Sivan and other scientists including a former chairman, keenly tracked its progress and health at the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Byalalu, near Bengaluru.
After firing the onboard liquid engine for 20 mins, Chandrayaan-2 left the earth’s orbit to enter the lunar trajectory, where it will travel for six days, before reaching the moon’s orbit.
The injection has been on ISRO’s the list of challenging aspects of the mission, apart from the first soft landing on the moon’s south polar region, preventing damage due to lunar dust and navigating large distances accurately.
It was held after the spacecraft raised five orbits around the earth between July 23 to August 6.
Now, the Chandrayaan2 is scheduled to reach the moon’s orbit on August 20, a little before which, the liquid engine will be fired again to insert it into the lunar orbit.
Then, the spacecraft will have four-orbit manoeuvres around the moon and finally enter the final orbit, closest to the moon’s surface — at a distance of about 100 km.
“Vikram lander will separate from the orbiter on September 2. Two orbit manoeuvres will be performed on the lander before the initiation of powered descent to make a soft landing on the lunar surface on September 07, 2019,” said ISRO officials
“Since its launch on July 22, 2019, by GSLV MkIII-M1 vehicle, all systems onboard Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft are performing normal,” officials added.
