Chandrayaan 2: Will enter lunar orbit at 9:30 am on Tuesday

New Delhi, Aug 19: The Chandrayaan-2 will finally to enter the moon's orbit on Tuesday, Aug 20, at around 9:30 am. This is a milestone for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Nearly, 48 days after it's launch, the spacecraft is expected to do soft-land on the moon's south pole on September 7. Bottom line: Chandrayaan-2 is still orbiting the Earth.

Reportedly, Chandrayaan-2 on entering Moon's sphere of influence, the onboard propulsion system of the craft will be fired to slow down the spacecraft to help it captured by Moon's gravity, as said by the ISRO chairman K Sivan.

Thereafter, five manoeuvres will be conducted on August 20, 21, 28, 30 and September 1 to lower the altitude of Chandrayaan-2 to bring it closer to Moon's surface.

On August 20, when Chandrayaan-2 will be the only 150km from the lunar orbit, a re-orientation will be conducted. A critical velocity will be provided to Chandrayaan-2 that reduces its velocity and changes its direction in order that it enters lunar orbit.

Speaking about lunar orbit insertion, the former ISRO chief Kiran Kumar said, "If the velocity is more, it will simply fly by and go away from Moon."

Eventually, Vikram lander will separate from the orbiter on September 2. The Isro chairman has also confirmed that they will perform two more manoeuvres on Vikram before the powered descent starts to make the lander do a soft-landing on Moon between on September 7.

Thereafter, the six-wheeled Pragyan rover, sheathed inside Vikram lander will finally come out of it after four hours of it's landing. It will roll out at a speed of 1cm per second.

During its lifespan of one lunar day (14 Earth days), Pragyan will move up to 500 metres on the lunar surface. It will take images and analyse content on the lunar surface and send back data via Vikram or the orbiter to Earth within 15 minutes.