ISRO releases first Moon image captured by Chandrayaan-2

Bengaluru, Aug. 22 (PTI): The first picture of Moon captured by India’s Chandrayaan-2 satellite, currently in the lunar orbit, was released by space agency ISRO on Thursday.

The picture of Moon was taken by Chandrayaan-2’s LI4 Camera from an altitude of about 2,650 km from the lunar surface on August 21, the city-headquarters Indian Space Research Organisation said.

“Take a look at the first Moon image captured by #Chandrayaan2 #VikramLander taken at a height of about 2,650 km from Lunar surface on August 21, 2019. Mare Orientale basin and Apollo craters are identified in the picture,” ISRO tweeted along with the picture.

The space agency had on August 4 released a first set of images of the earth captured by Chandrayaan-2 satellite.

ISRO had on Wednesday performed second lunar bound orbit maneuver for Chandrayaan-2 and said all spacecraft parameters are normal.

There will be three more orbit manoeuvres before the lander’s separation from the Orbiter on September 2 and eventual soft landing in the south polar region of the Moon, planned on September 7.

India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV MkIII-M1, had successfully launched the 3,840-kg Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft into the earth’s orbit on July 22.