Emily Lakdawalla • October 29, 2008

Chandrayaan-1 update: Still in Earth orbit, closer to the Moon

According to an update posted to the Chandrayaan-1 website this morning, the Indian lunar orbiter has now performed four orbit-raising maneuvers, and is now (after a maneuver at 02:08 UTC today) on an orbit with an apogee of 267,000 kilometers. This is a six-day orbit. If I am not mistaken, they should only need one more maneuver to get them into the 11-day lunar transfer orbit. The soonest that could happen is six days from this morning, or around November 4.

Emily Lakdawalla

Senior Editor and Planetary Evangelist for The Planetary Society
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