India's second Moon Mission, Chandrayaan-2, successfully entered the lunar orbit on Tuesday morning. Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) manoeuvre was completed successfully today (August 20, 2019) at 0902 hrs IST, as planned, using the on-board propulsion system.
According to ISRO, the duration of the manoeuvre was 1,738 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a Lunar orbit. The orbit achieved was 114 km x 18,072 km.
Following this, a series of orbit maneuvers 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 Moon's surface.
With this, India is one step closer to joining the league of the US, USSR(Russia) and China when it comes to the successful lunar mission.
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 7, 2019, reports Business Standard.
Dr. K. Sivan, Chairman, ISRO addressed the media today (August 20, 2019) at 1100 hrs IST on the occasion of Lunar Orbit Insertion of #Chandrayaan2.
“The final descent of the lander will be 15 terrifying minute will be terrifying for us as it's something we've never tried before,' Dr Sivan was quoted as saying.
Chandrayaan-2 is carrying a total of 14 payloads—13 Indian and one passive payload from NASA—with special focus of the orbiter on mapping craters in the polar region, besides checking for water again.