India’s moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, has arrived in lunar orbit. The spacecraft is engaged in a series of manoeuvres that will place it in its final operating orbit, a circular path looping over the moon’s poles at an altitude of 100km (62 miles).
Chandrayaan-2 entered lunar orbit at about 0500 BST on 20 August. Its initial orbit was highly elliptical, swinging from 114km above the moon to 18,072km. A second rocket burn on 21 August changed this to 118km and 4,412km.
The next orbital manoeuvre is planned for 28 August. Once the mission arrives in its final orbit, ground controllers will deploy the Vikram lander. This will begin its own sequence of braking manoeuvres to bring it to a touchdown at the lunar south pole on 7 September.
If successful, it will make India the fourth country to reach the moon’s surface, behind Russia, the US and China.
The spacecraft was developed and launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation, which reports that the vehicle’s systems are healthy. The mission lifted off on 22 July from the Satish Dhawan space centre, in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of Andhra Pradesh.
