Chandrayan-1 Spacecraft's orbit further raised

Bangalore, Oct 25 (UNI) The second orbit-raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, which was successfully launched by PSLV-C11 on October 22 from Sriharikota, was carried out at 0548 hours this morning.

An ISRO release here today stated that the orbit raising manoeuvre was carried out when the spacecraft's 440 Newton Liquid Engine was fired for about 16 minutes by commanding the spacecraft from Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Peenya.

With the firing of the engine, Chandrayaan-1's apogee has been further raised to 74,715 km and its perigee to 336 km. In this orbit, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft takes about tewnty five and-a-half hours to go around the earth once.

It is the first time an Indian spacecraft has gone beyond the 36,000 km high geostationary orbit and reached an altitude more than twice that height.

On October 22, the launch vehicle placed Chandrayaan-1 in an elliptical orbit with a perigee (Closest point to earth) of 255 km and apogee (Farthest point to earth) of 22860 km. The first orbit-raising manoeuvre was performed on October 23 by firing the spacecraft's liquid engine for 18 minutes resulting in the increase of the spacecraft orbit's apogee to 37,900 km and the perigee to 305 km.

The Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) situated at Bylalu, in the outskirts of the city, is tracking the spacecraft in the present orbit, receiving signals in S and X bands and is sending commands to the spacecraft.

All systems onboard the spacecraft are functioning normally and further orbit raising manoeuvres to take Chandrayaan-1 to still higher orbits are planned in the next few days, the release added.

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