Chandrayaan-2 schedule tweaked for soft-landing on previously fixed date
Notwithstanding the one-week delay in lift-off, the Chandrayaan-2 mission would likely see the lander and rover modules of the spacecraft making a soft-landing on the lunar surface on the previously fixed date of September 7. Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) have reworked the Chandrayaan-2 schedule so that it could land on the moon’s south pole as scheduled earlier. For this, Isro would be adjusting the travel time by tweaking the earth-bound and the lunar-bound phases, according to officials. According to the new timeline, the earth-bound phase has increased by six days to 23 days; earlier it was 17 days. The time for Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) would now be only 13 days (it was previously 28 days). Thus, the space agency has reduced the journey time by nine days; it had lost seven days due to postponing of the launch, which was earlier scheduled on July 15, said experts. K Sivan, chairman of Isro, told Business Standard that the space agency h