Chandrayaan-2 craft has successfully carried out its second de-orbiting maneuvre early Wednesday, Indian Research Organisation has said. It is inching towards achieving a historic soft-landing on lunar surface. "With this maeuvre, required orbit for Vikram Lander to commence its descent towards surface of Moon is achieved," ISRO ded in a statement. nine-second de-orbiting or retro-orbiting maeuvre was executed at 3.42 am using onboard propulsion system, ncy has said. On Tuesday, first de-orbiting maeuvre for craft was carried out, a day after lander 'Vikram' was separated from orbiter. While Chandrayaan-2 craft continued to orbit moon at a perigee of 96 km and apogee of 125 km, Vikram Lander is at an orbit of 35 km perigee and 101 km apogee.

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Vikram scheduled for descent pm September 7.

"Both Orbiter and Lander are healthy," ISRO said. ncy furr said that moon lander Vikram is scheduled for a powered-descent between 1 am and 2 am on September 7, followed by touch down of Lander between 1.30 am and 2.30 am. ISRO Chairman K Sivan has said proposed soft-landing on Moon will be a "terrifying" moment as ISRO has t done it before, whereas Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maeuvre was successfully carried out during Chandrayaan-1 mission. Following landing, rover 'Pragyan' will roll out from 'Vikram' between 5:30-6:30 am on September 7, and carry out experiments on lunar surface for a period of one lunar day, which is equal to 14 earth days.

mission life of lander is also one lunar day, while orbiter will continue its mission for a year. India's Geosynchrous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV MkIII-M1, h successfully launched 3,840-kg Chandrayaan-2 craft into earth's orbit on July 22. Chandrayaan-2 satellite h begun its journey towards moon leaving earth's orbit in dark hours on August 14, after a crucial maeuvre called Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI) that was carried out by ISRO to place craft on "Lunar Transfer Trajectory".

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A Major Milestone for ISRO

In a major milestone for India's second Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2 craft successfully entered lunar orbit on August 20 by performing Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) maeuvre. health of craft is being continuously monitored from Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Network (IDSN) antennas at Bylalu, near Bengaluru, ncy has said.  

orbiter carries eight scientific paylos to map lunar surface and study exosphere (outer atmosphere) of Moon. lander carries three scientific paylos to conduct surface and subsurface science experiments. rover carries two paylos to enhance understanding of lunar surface. India's second lunar expedition would shed light on a completely unexplored section of Moon, it's South Polar region.

According to ISRO, mission objective of Chandrayaan-2 is to develop and demonstrate key techlogies for end-to-end lunar mission capability, including a soft-landing and roving on lunar surface. On science front, this mission aims to furr expand kwledge about moon through a detailed study of its topography, mineralogy, surface chemical composition, rmo-physical characteristics, and atmosphere, leing to a better understanding of origin and evolution of moon, ncy h said. On successful completion, it will make India fourth country after Russia, US and China to pull off a soft landing on moon.

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(With inputs from PTI)