BENGALURU: Taking India another step closer to landing on Moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), on Friday (August 2) completed another flawless manoeuvre around Earth by raising the orbit of Chandrayaan-2 yet again.

"Fourth earth bound orbit raising maneuver has been performed successfully at 3.27pm as planned, using the onboard propulsion system for a firing duration of 646 seconds. The orbit achieved is 277 x 89,472 km," Isro said.

After the burning of the Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) for more than 10 minutes, all spacecraft parameters were found to be normal.

The next orbit raising maneuver is scheduled on August 6. Chandrayaan-2 is India's second lunar mission after Chandrayaan-1 (in 2008). And, unlike the first mission, this involves soft-landing a probe on the lunar surface.

As of Friday, Isro expects the Moon landing in the small hours of September 7. If Vikram (the lander) lands successful, then Isro will bring out Pragyan the rover.



In Video: India closer to Moon landing as Chandrayaan-2 completes fourth orbit raising