Chandrayaan-2 leaves Earth's orbit, enters lunar trajectory

Chandrayaan-2, India's second lunar mission, is now yet another step closer to the Moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) informed on Wednesday. The spacecraft successfully carried out the crucial process of trans-lunar injection, moving from earth's orbit towards the moon. Chandrayaan-2 will now approach the Moon on August 20 and finally land near the south pole of the moon on September 7.

"The final orbit raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was successfully carried out today (August 14, 2019) at 02:21 am IST. During this manoeuvre, the spacecraft's liquid engine was fired for about 1203 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory. Earlier, the spacecraft's orbit was progressively increased five times during July 23 to August 06, 2019," said ISRO.

As the final orbit raising manoeuvre was underway, ISRO chairman was Dr K Sivan was at the Control Centre in ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru.