Chandrayaan-2 continues its path to the moon; Spacecraft completes its 2nd earth bound orbit raising manoeuvre with ease; Next manoeuvre planned for 29th July

The Indian Space Research Organisation, on Friday 26 July confirmed that India's second moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, has successfully performed its second Earth-bound orbit manoeuvre. The space agency in a tweet said that the spacecraft performed the manoeuvre at exactly 01:08 am on 26 July, according to the plan.

The space agency further gave an update on the spacecraft, saying that all the parameters were working normally after the manoeuvre.

The first earth bound orbit-raising manoeuvre for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully on Wednesday while the third orbit raising manoeuvre is scheduled on July 29.

The spacecraft has been orbiting the earth since July 22. Engineers at the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking & Command Network performed the operation at 1.08 a.m. (local time) using a propulsion system on board the spacecraft. This was the second of four operations planned at its earth phase before the spacecraft shoots off towards moon on August 14 (Day 23-24) from launch.

“All spacecraft parameters are normal,” said an update.

ISTRAC will be in charge of the movement of the spacecraft from Bangalore through its lifetime. The engineers raised the oval orbit by about 9,500 km at the far end. The spacecraft orbits currently at 251 km from earth at one end and 54,829 km at the far end.

Chandrayaan-2 was launched on 22 July from the Satish Dhawan Space Station in Sriharikota, after the initial launch on 15 July was delayed due to a technical snag in the launch vehicle, GSLV-MK-III. ISRO has said that the Chandrayaan-2 mission is likely to reach the moon by 20 August.

An hour-long third manoeuvre is planned on July 29 at 2.30 p.m.

ISRO