The second de-orbiting manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was successfully carried out early Wednesday, the Indian Space Research Organisation said, inching towards achieving a historic soft-landing on the lunar surface.
"With this manoeuvre the required orbit for the Vikram Lander to commence its descent towards the surface of the moon is achieved," ISRO said in a statement.
The nine-second de-orbiting or retro-orbiting manoeuvre was executed at 3.42am using the onboard propulsion system, the space agency said.
The first de-orbiting manoeuvre comes less than 24 hours after Vikram successfully separated from Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter on Monday. The separation was the next step in the process after it had successfully performed the fifth and final lunar bound orbit manoeuvre on Sunday.
In a major milestone for India's second moon mission, the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft had successfully entered the lunar orbit on August 20 by performing the LOI manoeuvre.
Chandrayaan-2 satellite began its journey towards the moon,leaving the earth's orbit in the dark hours on August 14, after a crucial manoeuvre called Trans Lunar Insertion (TLI) carried out by ISRO to place the spacecraft on "Lunar Transfer Trajectory".
India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV MkIII-M1 had successfully launched the 3,840-kg Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft into the earth's orbit on July 22.
The spacecraft's health is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex at ISRO Telemetry,Tracking and Command Network in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network antennas at Bylalu, near Bengaluru, the space agency has said.
Following the landing, the rover 'Pragyan' will roll out from lander 'Vikram' between 5:30-6:30 am on September 7 and carry out experiments on the lunar surface for a period of one lunar day, which is equal to 14 earth days.
