Chandrayaan 2: ISRO A Step Closer To Creating History As Vikram Lander Successfully Separates From Orbiter

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday (2 September) came closer to scripting Indian space history as the Vikram lander successfully separated from the Chandrayaan 2 orbiter.

As per an official announcement by ISRO, the separation occurred at 1.15 PM today and the lander is currently located at an orbit of 119 km x 127 km. The main orbiter will continue to orbit the moon and its health is currently being monitored from ISRO’s Mission Operations Complex (MOX) in Bengaluru.

All the system reports are normal and the next manoeuvre would be carried out tomorrow before the eventual scheduled landing on 7 September.

What’s Next

As explained here, the lander would now engage its four engines to reach a point which is 18 km above the moon’s surface. There it will engage its on board position-detection camera and hazard-avoidance sensor to study the landing site.

Using the data obtained, the lander will autonomously determine the trajectory it will have to take to get to its pre-determined landing site and steer itself to a location 100 metres above the site to determine the safest landing point.

The lander will then be guided to this point and hover at the height of 2 metres above the location.

At this point the thrust will be cut off and the lander will go into a free fall to the impact point with the landing legs attached to it absorbing the impact shock.