Chandrayaan-I reaches halfway point

New Delhi: After completing five days of its journey towards the moon, Chandrayaan-I is now preparing to lock into the orbit of Earth's only natural satellite.

The ISRO command and control centre fired Chandrayaan-1's liquid engine for 550 seconds on Sunday morning at around 0700 hours that manoeuvred the satellite closer to its destination orbit. Till now, Chandrayaan-1 has clocked 1,64,600 kilometres since launch on 22 October from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

Chandrayaan-1 entered deep space after crossing the 150,000 kilometre mark after the successful completion of the spacecraft's third orbit raising manoeuvre on 26 October. 

A statement by ISRO said that during this manoeuvre, which was initiated at 0708 hours IST, the spacecraft's 440 Newton liquid engine was fired for about nine and a half minutes. With this, Chandrayaan-1 entered a much higher elliptical orbit around the Earth. The apogee (farthest point to Earth) of this orbit lies at 164,600 kilometres, while the perigee (nearest point to Earth) is at 348 kilometres. In this orbit, Chandrayaan-1 takes about 73 hours to go round the Earth once. 

Prior to today's firing of the engine, which is the third orbit raising manoeuvre, the second orbit-raising manoeuvre had been carried out at 0548 hours IST on 25 October, 2008, with the spacecraft's 440 Newton Liquid Engine was fired for about 16 minutes by commanding the spacecraft from Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Peenya, Bangalore. The second manoeuvre Chandrayaan-1's apogee was raised to 74,715 kilometres, while its perigee has been raised to 336 kilometres. In this orbit, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft took around twenty-five and a half hours to go round the Earth once. It was also the first time that an Indian spacecraft went beyond the 36,000 kilometre high geostationary orbit and reached an altitude over twice the height. 

Shiv Kumar, director of ISTRAC was quoted as saying that Chandrayaan's liquid engine was fired for 550 seconds this morning at 0708 hours, with everything going well. He said the firing was meant for putting the satellite into an elliptical orbit which will take it closer to the moon. 

The 1.64 lakh kilometre mark is roughly half of the distance to the moon, with Chandrayaan-1 covering a total of 3.84 lakh kilometres for its full journey to the moon.

Another three manoeuvres are scheduled for 29 October, 3 November and 8 November. 

The Chandrayaan-1's engine, when fired on 8 November, will see the spacecraft go round the moon in an orbit of 7,500 kilometres by 500 kilometres. On 14 or 15 November, it will settle at the final orbit of 100 kilometres around the moon. 

Project raises interest levels in jobs at ISRO

Reports have quoted Chandrayaan's project director Dr M Annadurai as saying that he was in receipt of some email from scientists around the world, in which they have expressed interests in working at ISRO. He said all these emails came after ISRO sent Chandrayaan-1 on its way to the moon. 

The reports suggested that these emails are primary feelers sent mainly by scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). They said that these scientists are keen on working with (ISRO), and some of them are Indians who would like to return home as well. A number of others are said to be foreign nationals seeking positions at various levels at ISRO.