The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday announced that the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maneuver of its Chandrayaan 2 was completed successfully on August 20. The spacecraft will now undergo a series of ‘orbit maneuvers’ to enter its final orbit that passes over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the moon’s surface.
#ISROToday (August 20, 2019) after the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI), #Chandrayaan2 is now in Lunar orbit. Lander Vikram will soft land on Moon on September 7, 2019 pic.twitter.com/6mS84pP6RD
ISRO also reassured observers that all systems in the Chandrayaan 2 are healthy. The spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Bylalu, near the Karnataka capital.
Chandrayaan 2, India’s high-profile lunar mission, lifted off on July 22 aboard the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk III) from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, a week after a technical glitch resulted in the postponement of the launch. The mission comes 11 years after the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO’s) first successful lunar mission, the Chandrayaan 1, which orbited the moon more than 3,400 times and was operational for 312 days until August 29, 2009.
