NewDelhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has released the first set of pictures of Earth captured by Chandrayaan-2 Vikram Lander. The images were released on Sunday by ISRO on microblogging site Twitter.
Earth has been beautifully captured in the pictures by Chandrayaan-2 LI4 camera. They pictures were taken on Saturday.
Chandrayaan-2 had successfully carried out the fourth Earth bound orbit-raising manoeuvre for its lunar mission two days back.
ISRO had said in a statement, “Fourth earth bound orbit-raising manoeuvre for Chandryaan-2 spacecraft has been performed successfully today (August 2, 2019) at 1527 hrs (IST) as planned, using the onboard propulsion system for a firing duration of 646 seconds. The orbit achieved is 277 x 89472 km. All spacecraft parameters are normal.”
The next orbit-raising manoeuvre is slated on Tuesday, August 6, 2019, between 2.30 pm and 3.30 pm (IST).
The first, second, and third orbit raising manoeuvres were successfully carried on July 24, July 26, and July 29 respectively.
ISRO’s ambitious second unmanned Moon mission was put into motion on July 22, when the Chandrayaan 2 was injected into an elliptical orbit of 170×45,475 km by India’s heavy-lift rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV Mk III) in a textbook style.
The spacecraft Chandrayaan 2 comprises of three segments — the Orbiter (weighing 2,379 kg, eight payloads), the lander ‘Vikram’ (1,471 kg, four payloads) and rover ‘Pragyan’ (27 kg, two payloads).
Chandrayaan 2 is scheduled to reach the Moon by August 20 and land on its surface on September 7. According to ISRO, the lander Vikram will land on the Moon on September 7.
The Chandrayaan 2 lunar mission will make India only the fourth nation in the world – behind US, Russia and China – to have reached the surface of the Moon.
Bureau Report
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