In another success for ISRO, the advanced moon lander ‘Vikram’ successfully separated from Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter on Monday. “The Vikram Lander successfully separated from Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter at 1315 hrs IST today. The Vikram Lander is currently located in an orbit of 119 km x 127 km. The Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter continues to orbit the Moon in its existing orbit,” the statement said.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed the development in a tweet.
“Vikram Lander Successfully separates from #Chandrayaan2 Orbiter today (September 02, 2019) at 1315 hrs IST,” ISRO tweeted.
“The health of the Orbiter and Lander is being monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru with support from Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antennas at Bylalu, near Bengaluru. All the systems of Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter and Lander are healthy,” ISRO said.
The next maneuver is scheduled for Tuesday between 8:45pm and 9:45pm, it said.
The soft landing of Chandrayaan-2 Vikram lander on lunar surface is scheduled between 1:30 am to 2:30 am on September 7. This will be followed by the Rover roll out between 5:30 am to 6:30 am, it added.
