ISRO's Chandrayaan-2 captures first image of Moon, identifies Mare Orientale basin and Apollo craters

The Chandrayaan 2 captured the first image of the Moon, released by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday, in another milestone for India's space mission. The clear and radiant picture was taken at a height of about 2,650 km from the lunar surface on Wednesday. 

Taking to Twitter, ISRO also said that the Mare Orientale basin and Apollo craters were identified in the picture. "Take a look at the first Moon image captured by Chandrayaan 2 #VikramLander taken at a height of about 2650 km from Lunar surface on August 21, 2019. Mare Orientale basin and Apollo craters are identified in the picture," tweeted ISRO.

Take a look at the first Moon image captured by #Chandrayaan2 #VikramLander taken at a height of about 2650 km from Lunar surface on August 21, 2019.

Mare Orientale basin and Apollo craters are identified in the picture.#ISRO pic.twitter.com/ZEoLnSlATQ — ISRO (@isro) August 22, 2019

The second lunar bound orbit manoeuvre for Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft was performed successfully on Wednesday. The orbit manoeuvre began at 12.50 pm and took 1,228 seconds (approx 20 minutes) to complete. The orbit achieved is 118 km X 4,412 km distance said ISRO.

All the spacecraft parameters are normal. The next lunar bound orbit manoeuvre is scheduled on August 28 between 5.30 am to 6.30 am IST.

On Tuesday morning, Chandrayaan-2 successfully entered the Moon’s orbit. The ISRO in a statement confirmed the Lunar Orbit Insertion of Chandrayaan-2 at 9.02 am on Tuesday.

A statement released by ISRO read, “Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) manoeuvre was completed successfully today (August 20, 2019) at 0902 hrs IST as planned, using the onboard propulsion system. The duration of manoeuvre was 1738 seconds. With this, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a Lunar orbit. The orbit achieved is 114 km x 18072 km.”

“Following this, a series of orbit manoeuvres will be performed on Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft to enable it to enter its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon’s surface. Subsequently, the lander will separate from the Orbiter and enters into a 100 km X 30 km orbit around the Moon. Then, it will perform a series of complex braking manoeuvres to soft-land in the South polar region of the Moon on September 7, 2019,” the statement further read.

The Mission Operations Complex at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru is continuously monitoring “the health of the spacecraft”. The ISTRAC is aided by the Indian Deep Space Network (ISDN) antennas at Bylalu near Bengaluru. ISRO further confirmed that “all the systems of Chandrayaan-2 are healthy”.

ISRO will carry out three more orbit manoeuvres (August 28, August 30 and September 1) to enter it into its final orbit passing over lunar poles at a distance of about 100 km from the Moon's surface.