Chandrayaan-2 completed yet another feat in its journey to Moon this morning when it successfully performed the second de-orbiting. In a press release about the development, Isro said the manoeuvre was performed successfully as planned within nine seconds.
"The second de-orbiting maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully today (September 04, 2019) beginning at 0342 hrs IST as planned, using the onboard propulsion system. The duration of the maneuver was 9 seconds," Isro said in a press release.
As of today, the orbit of Vikram Lander is 35km X 101km.
Isro said Chandrayaan-2 continues to orbit the Moon in an orbit of 96 km x 125 km. It said both the Orbiter and Lander are healthy.
#ISRO
ISRO (@isro) September 3, 2019
The second de-orbiting maneuver for #Chandrayaan spacecraft was performed successfully today (September 04, 2019) beginning at 0342 hrs IST.
For details please see https://t.co/GiKDS6CmxE
Chandrayaan-2 is arguably Isro's most sophisticated project till date. It plans to land a rover on the far-end or dark face of the Moon. What also distinguishes the mission is that it aims to soft-land the rover on Moon's surface, a feat achieved only by three other countries so far.
Speaking about today's development, Isro said, "With this manoeuvre the required orbit for the Vikram Lander to commence its descent towards the surface of the Moon is achieved. The Lander is scheduled to powered descent between 0100 - 0200 hrs IST on September 07, 2019, which is then followed by touchdown of Lander between 0130 - 0230 hrs IST."
The first de-orbiting was performed successfully on September 03.