Chandrayaan-2 successfully enters 2nd Lunar orbit

Chennai: The second Lunar orbit manoeuvre for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was successfully completed on Wednesday, said India Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

According to ISRO, the orbit manoeuvre began at 12.50 p.m. and took 1,228 seconds to complete. The orbit achieved is 118 km X 4,412 km.

All spacecraft parameters are normal.

The next Lunar bound orbit manoeuvre is scheduled on August 28, 2019 between 5.30 a.m. - 6.30 a.m.

On Tuesday, the Chandrayaan-2 was put into its first Lunar orbit.

On July 22, the Chandrayaan-2 was injected into an elliptical orbit of 170X45,475 km by India's heavy lift rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV Mk III) in a text book style.

The spacecraft 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, Vikram's separation from Chandrayaan-2 and touch down on the Moon's South Pole.