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The fifth and final orbit raising manoeuvre of
Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was successfully carried out today (November 4, 2008)
morning at 04:56 am IST. During this manoeuvre, the spacecrafts 440 Newton
liquid engine was fired for about two and a half minutes. With this,
Chandrayaan-1 entered the Lunar Transfer Trajectory with an apogee (farthest
point to Earth) of about 380,000 km (three lakh eighty thousand km).
The health of the spacecraft is being
continuously monitored from the Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry,
Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bangalore with support from Indian
Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Byalalu. Since its launch on October 22
by PSLV-C11, all systems onboard Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft are performing
normally. Chandrayaan-1 will approach the Moon on November 8, 2008 and the
spacecrafts liquid engine will be fired again to insert the spacecraft into
lunar orbit.
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