India's second lunar mission Chandrayaan 2 hassuccessfully completed its second earth bound orbit raising maneuver, IndianSpace Research Organisation (ISRO) said Friday.
“Second earth boundorbit raising maneuver for #Chandrayaan2 spacecraft has been performed today(July 26, 2019) at 0108 hrs (IST) as planned,” tweeted the space agency. Theearth bound orbit raising maneuver was performed using the onboard propulsionsystem for a firing duration of 883 seconds, said ISRO. “The orbit achieved is251 x 54829 km,” it said, adding that all spacecraft parameters are normal.
India on Monday (July 22) launched its spacecraft using itsmost powerful rocket, the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III(GSLV Mk-III) from Satish Dhawan space centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.The mission aims to achieve India's first surface landing on moon's south poleregion, where it will collect crucial information about the moon’s compositionand regarding the presence of water and other minerals on the lunar surface.
The successful launch came exactly a week after the missionwas aborted following the detection of a technical glitch less than an hourbefore the take-off. The spacecraft consists of an orbiter, a lander and arover together referred to as "composite body". Chandrayaan-2 willexplore a region of the moon where no mission has ever set foot.
