TheIndian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) scientist on Friday performed thesecond of the five planned orbit-raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-2 in theEarth's orbit.
Theon-board propulsion system was fired to increase the apogee or the point on theelliptical orbit farthest from the Earth at 1:08 am.
The first orbit raising manoeuvre was able to forego by ISRO scientists which is planned for the day after lift-off as the GSLV Mark III over-performed placing the spacecraft which can be used to play around with the manaoeuvre.
Reports say that the orbit of Chandrayaan 2 was increased to a 251×54,829 km from the 230 x 45, 163 km which was in after the first manoeuvre. ISRO scientist said that three more burns or firing of the propulsion system will be carried out to reach the final orbit of 221 x 1,43,585 km on August 6.
Thespacecraft is scheduled to reach a lunar orbit on August 20.
Anofficial of ISRO said that although they have given the intended orbits for thenext four manoeuvres, with each burn the numbers are likely to change which isa very dynamic process. He said that there is a team that recalculates theorbit every hour and there is round the clock simulation to plan for the nextmove. Once launched, it cannot be changed as it is not like a launch vehicle. Theofficial further said that the spacecraft is in their control and they need toguide it to the intended orbit to escape Earth's orbit.
