India’s second moon spacecraft Chandrayaan-2, put into earth orbit on July 22, is scheduled to reach the Moon by August 20, the Indian space agency said on Wednesday.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that the first-earth bound orbit raising manoeuvre for Chandryaan-2 was successfully performed on Wednesday afternoon by firing the onboard motors for 57 seconds.
The new orbit is 230×45,163 km. The second orbit raising manoeuvre is scheduled on July 26, at 1.09 a.m., it added.
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 textbook style.
Chandrayaan-2 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, the lander’s separation from Chandrayaan-2 and its touchdown on the moon’s South Pole.
ISRO said the trans-lunar insertion of Chandrayaan-2 is scheduled on August 14, which will send the spacecraft to moon, which it will reach by August 20.
