Chandrayaan-2 successfully enters lunar orbit

New Delhi, August 20 (PTI): In a major milestone for India's Moon mission, the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft successfully entered the lunar orbit on Tuesday.

 

Lunar Orbit Insertion manoeuvre was completed successfully at 0902 hours as planned, using the onboard propulsion system, the Bengaluru headquartered space agency said in a statement.

 

"The duration of manoeuvre was 1,738 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a Lunar orbit," Indian Space Research Organisation said.

 

Following this, a series of orbit manoeuvres will be performed on Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft to enable it to enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moons surface, it said.

 

Subsequently, the lander will separate from the Orbiter and enter into a 100 km X 30 km orbit around the Moon.

 

Then, it will perform a series of complex braking manoeuvres to soft land in the South polar region of the Moon on September seven, ISRO stated.

 

The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network antennas at Bylalu, near Bengaluru.

 

The next lunar bound orbit manoeuvre is scheduled on Wednesday between 12.30 pm and 1.30 pm, ISRO said.

 

Chandrayaan-2, launched on July 22 by GSLV MkIII-M1 vehicle, had entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory on August 14.

 

According to ISRO, Chandrayaan 2 -- India's second lunar expedition -- will shed light on a completely unexplored section of the Moon its South Polar region.

 

"This mission will help us gain a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the Moon by conducting detailed topographical studies, comprehensive mineralogical analyses, and a host of other experiments on the lunar surface", the space agency had said.

 

"While there, we will also explore discoveries made by Chandrayaan 1, such as the presence of water molecules on the Moon and new rock types with unique chemical composition", it was stated.

 

Chandryaan-2 comprises an Orbiter, Lander (Vikram) and Rover (Pragyaan).

 

The mission life of Orbiter will be one year whereas the mission life of lander (Vikram) and rover (Pragyan) will be one Lunar day which is equal to fourteen earth days.

 

"Our heart was almost stopping", ISRO after lunar orbit insertion

"Our heart was almost stopping", was how ISRO Chairman K Sivan described the tense moment when team Chadrayaan-2 attempted to inject the spacecraft into the lunar orbit on Tuesday.

 

As ISRO scientists started firing Chandrayaan-2's onboard liquid engine to put the spacecraft in an orbit around the Moon, Sivan said "our heartbeat increased". 

 

"For 30 minutes, our heart was almost stopping," he told a press conference after the Lunar Orbit Insertion manoeuvre was completed successfully at 0902 hours as planned, using the onboard propulsion system.   

 

But Sivan said the proposed soft-landing on the Moon on September 7 is going to be a "terrifying" moment as it is something ISRO has not done before, whereas LOI manoeuvre had been carried out successfully during the Chandrayaan-1 mission.   

 

"Now the tension has only increased, not reduced," he said.   

 

However, ISRO was confident about the soft-landing.   

 

"We have done enough tests, simulations... sub-systems, systems...sensor level...whatever humanly possible, we did," he added.    

 

Modi hails ISRO for Chandrayaan2's entry into lunar orbit

 

New Delhi, August 20 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday congratulated the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) after Chandrayaan2 was put into the lunar orbit.

"Congratulations to Team ISRO on Chandrayaan2 entering the Moon's orbit. This is an important step in the landmark journey to the Moon. Best wishes for its successful culmination," Modi tweeted.

The space agency on Tuesday successfully completed the orbit manoeuvre and put the Chandrayaan2 spacecraft into the lunar orbit.

The Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) was completed successfully at 9.02 a.m. using the onboard propulsion system.

Union Minister Rajnath Singh also congratulated the ISRO scientists.

"The smooth entry ... is yet another significant achievement for our scientists. Looking forward to the landing of 'Pragyaan' on the moon next month," Singh tweeted.

Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh (Yogi Adityanath) and Delhi (Arvind Kejriwal) too took to Twitter to hail ISRO.