Article Posted on : - Nov 10, 2008

Chandrayaan was successfully launched on October 22

BANGALORE (PTI): ISRO scientists on Sunday successfully conducted the first orbit lowering manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1, India's first unmanned spacecraft mission to the Moon, achieving the desired orbit.

“The orbit-lowering of Chandrayaan-1 was successfully carried out at 8:03 PM on Sunday,” ISRO spokesperson S Satish said.

“The liquid engine on board the spacecraft was fired for duration of 57 seconds and the desired orbit of 7500 km X 200 km has been achieved,” Satish said, adding that further manoeuvres are being planned in the coming days.

Chandrayaan-1 entered the lunar orbit on Saturday, breaking away from the Earth's gravitational field. The performance of all the systems onboard Chandrayaan-1 is normal.

The height of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft's orbit around the Moon will be carefully reduced in steps to achieve a final polar orbit of about 100 km height from the Moon's surface by November 15.

Following this, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) of the spacecraft will be released to hit the lunar surface. Later, the other scientific instruments will be turned on sequentially, leading to the normal phase of the mission.