In yet another step closer to the moon, India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft has undergone the fourth earth-bound manoeuvring successfully today. The national space agency ISRO has said in a tweet, the operation began at 3.27 pm by firing the engine onboard the spacecraft, which lasted for ten minutes and 46 seconds. The operation helped to raise its orbit to 277 km at the near end to the earth and nearly ninety thousand kilometres at the farthest end.
The ISRO has observed that all the parameters of Chandrayaan-2 are normal. The next and final earth-bound orbit-raising manoeuvre is scheduled to be on Tuesday afternoon. Chandrayaan-2 is the second lunar expedition by India, that aims to soft-land on an area that remains unexplored. It has 14 instruments onboard the orbiter, lander and the rover, including one for a passive experiment.