Chandrayaan 2 set to leave earth's orbit on August 14: ISRO Chairman

ISRO chairman, K Sivan on Monday said that the spacecraft Chandrayaan 2 will leave the earth's orbit and move towards the moon by a maneuver called " trans-lunar injection" on August 14.

 He said that the spacecraft will be reaching the moon's orbit on August 20 and it will be landing on the moon's surface on September 7 by performing a series of maneuvers.

"After performing a series of maneuvers around the moon, we will be landing on the moon on September 7.", ISRO Chairman said.

ISRO Chairman: On 20 Aug, spacecraft will be reaching moon&we'll be carrying out lunar orbit insertion,by this process,#Chandrayaan2 will be around moon on Aug20, we plan to have series of maneuvers around moon, finally on Sep 7 we'll be landing on moon, this is our plan. https://t.co/XUgMLKLNcL

— ANI (@ANI) August 12, 2019

 "On the early morning of August 14th, around 3:30 am, the organization is going to perform a maneuver called trans-lunar injection by which Chandrayaan 2 will leave earth and move towards the moon's orbit.", he further added.

India launched Chandrayaan - 2 on-board its powerful rocket GSLV-MkIII-M1 from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh with the aim of landing a rover in the unexplored lunar south pole on July 22.

The 3,850 kg Chandrayaan-2, a three-module spacecraft comprising orbiter, lander and rover, was injected into the earth's orbit. GSLV MKIII M1 successfully placed Chandrayaan – 2 spacecraft into a highly elliptical orbit of 170 x 45475 km on July 22.

It will be subjected to a series of orbit maneuvers in the coming weeks to take it to the vicinity of the moon, with the rover soft landing planned on September 7.

(With ANI inputs)