After two weeks of journey India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 will enter the lunar orbit on Saturday evening at 16:50 hrs pm IST. The journey so far has been 'error-free'.
Initially, Chandrayaan-1 will be circling the moon from 7,500 kilometers away. However, by Tuesday it will cruise closer to the moon early on Tuesday when it makes the transition from the earth's elliptical orbit into deeper space, a top space agency official said Monday.
"The liquid apogee motor (LAM) on board will be fired around 5.00 am on Tuesday for about five minutes to make the transition and position the spacecraft at about 500 km from the moon's surface and over 384,000 km away from the earth," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director S. Satish said.
The complex manoeuvres will be carried out from the spacecraft's control room at ISRO's telemetry, tracking and command network (Istrac) in coordination with its deep space network (DSN) at Byalalu, about 40 km from Bangalore.
"Additional velocity will be given to the spacecraft to enter the lunar orbit Saturday (November 8) for a rendezvous with the moon. With calibrated firing of its LAMs, it will be inserted into its designated orbit, which will be about 100 km from the lunar surface," Satish said.
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