BENGALURU: A day after a successful launch, the Indian Space Research Organisation ( Isro ) has decided that Chandrayaan-2 would only need four orbit-raising manoeuvres—where the engines on the spacecraft are fired to take it to a higher orbit—around Earth as opposed to the five chalked out by the mission team earlier.

Isro chairman K Sivan on Tuesday reviewed the performance of the lunarcraft, along with the director of UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSAC) at the Isro Telemetry, Tracking and Command (Istrac) centre here.

"The health of the satellite is good and everything is going on as per plans," a scientist privy to developments said, adding that it will now only need four orbit-raising manoeuvres.

The scientist added that the additional altitude gained during the launch has enable the agency to take this decision.

Sivan, soon after the launch at 2.43pm Monday had said: “In fact, the spacecraft is in an orbit 6,000km higher than what we intended. This way, the craft will have more life and fuel."

Another scientist explained that as per the first plan—for July 15 launch that was cancelled—Isro was hoping for an orbit of 170kmX39,000km. This was later revised to 41,000km for the Monday (July 22) launch.

"...And, the first orbit raising manoeuvre scheduled today (Tuesday). Was it raise to to about 45,000km. Since the launch itself achieved that goal, we've decided to have just four manoeuvres around Earth," the scientist explained.

Neither of them, could immediately confirm if there would be any other changes to the mission plan.

