Chandrayaan-1 is now closer to moon

Bangalore, Nov 4: The fifth and final orbit raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was successfully carried out at 0456 hrs on Tuesday, Nov 4. During the manoeuvre, the spacecraft's 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about two and a half minutes. With this, Chandrayaan-1 entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory with an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of about 3,80,000 km, ISRO, said in a release. The health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore, with support from Indian Deep Space Network(IDSN) antennas at Byalalu.

Since its launch on Wednesday, Oct 22 by PSLV-C11, all systems onboard Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft are performing normally. Chandrayaan-1 would approach the Moon on November 8 and the spacecraft's liquid engine would be fired again to insert the spacecraft into lunar orbit, the release added.

UNI