Bengaluru: Twenty-three days after being launched, following Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI) maneuver operation, Chandrayaan 2 departed from Earth’s orbit and moved toward the Moon, tweeted Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today.
The Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI) manoeuvre was carried out by ISRO at 2:21 am today. “During the final orbit raising of the spacecraft around the earth, the liquid engine was fired for about 1203 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory,” tweeted the space agency.
The agency said that they were monitoring the spacecraft and that its orbit was progressively increased five times between 23 July and 6 August. The spacecraft is being monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Byalalu, near Bengaluru.
India’s second moon mission, the spacecraft is expected to reach the moon’s orbit on 20 August and land on lunar surface on 7 September.
“Following this, there will be four orbit maneuvers to make the spacecraft enter its final orbit, passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the moon’s surface,” said ISRO.
India will be the first country to land on South Pole lunar region. The mission, if complete, will make India the fourth country after Russia, the US and China to pull off a soft landing on the Moon.