Chandrayaan 2 enters lunar trajectory

The Indian space research organisation (ISRO) had recently conducted the 'trans lunar injection’ (TLI) manoeuvre on Chandrayaan 2 sending it off Earth’s orbit to a straight path towards the moon. During the manoeuvre, the spacecraft’s liquid engine was fired for about 1,203 seconds to send it out of the Earth's elliptical orbit and into the lunar trajectory. The spacecraft had spent a period of 22 days in the Earth's elliptical orbit before getting into the lunar orbit. In order to put Chandrayaan-2 in the lunar trajectory, ISRO had to raise the elliptical orbit of the spacecraft by conducting a series of five manoeuvres. The last manoeuvre involved firing of the propulsion system for a duration of 1,041 seconds. K Sivan, Chairman of ISRO said, "Chandrayaan-2 will take six days to travel in the lunar trajectory to reach Moon (lunar orbit) on August 20. We had raised the Earth orbit of Chandrayaan-2 with the help of the propulsion system to take the craft away from Earth, we will use the propulsion system to lower the lunar orbit of Chandrayaan-2. We will do five to six manoeuvres to reduce its orbit". He further said, "The final descent of 30km for 15 minutes will be the most terrifying moments for Team ISRO as we will be handling this most complex operation for the first time. The final descent of Chandrayaan-2, when its thrusters will move into a reverse direction so as to reduce the spacecraft's speed, will be shaky. It will be just like holding a newborn baby for the first time".

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