India's second lunar mission 'Chandrayaan-2' left Earth's orbit and began its journey to the Moon. Chandrayaan, the first mission to land on the Moon's south pole, has been successfully transitioned from the orbit around the Earth to the Moon's orbit by burning the liquefied fuel engine for 1,203 seconds.
The spacecraft is expected to reach the moon's orbit on August 20 and land on lunar surface on September 7. Chandrayaan-2 was launched from ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on July 22.
The Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said it has carried out a manoeuvre called 'Trans Lunar Insertion' (TLI) at 2:21 am on Wednesday, following which the spacecraft has successfully entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory
"Today (August 14, 2019) after the Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI) maneuver operation, #Chandrayaan2 will depart from Earth's orbit and move towards the Moon (sic)," the ISRO tweeted.
"During the final orbit raising of the spacecraft around the earth, the liquid engine was fired for about 1203 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory," the space agency said.
Earlier, the spacecraft's orbit was progressively increased five times between July 23 and August 6.
The health of the spacecraft is being "continuously monitored" from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) with support from (IDSN) antennas at Byalalu, near Bengaluru, it said.
"Since its launch on July 22 all systems onboard Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft are performing normally," the ISRO said.
According to ISRO, Chandrayaan-2 is the most challenging mission ever attempted by the space agency. The 'Pragyan rover' will move on the surface of the moon to perform on-site chemical analysis for a period of 14 days (one lunar day).
(With inputs from ISRO)
