Chandrayaan 2 inches closer to moon, to enter lunar orbit today

India's second spacecraft to the moon, Chandrayaan-2, will be inserted into the lunar orbit on Tuesday morning, the Indian space agency said.

According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), by firing Chandrayaan-2 on-board motors, the space craft will be moved into the lunar orbit.

After Chandrayaan-2's insertion into the lunar orbit, ISRO will carry out four more orbit maneuvers (August 21, 28, 30 and September 1) to enter it into its final orbit passing over lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon's surface.

Subsequently, the Vikram lander will separate from the orbiter on September 2, 2019.

Two orbit maneuvers will be performed on the lander before the initiation of powered descent to make a soft landing on the lunar surface on September 7, 2019, ISRO said.

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).