Chandrayaan-1 enters deep space

Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has entered deep space after crossing the 1,50,000 km distance mark from the Earth.

Coverage: India's Moon Mission

This has happened after the successful completion of the spacecraft's third orbit raising manoeuvre on Sunday, Indian Space Research Organisation said in a statement in Bangalore.

During this manoeuvre, Chandrayaan-1 entered a much higher elliptical orbit around the Earth. The apogee (farthest point to Earth) of this orbit lies at 1,64,600 km while the perigee (nearest point to Earth) is at 348 km. In this orbit, Chandrayaan-1 takes about 73 hours to go round the Earth once.

The antennas of the Indian Deep Space Network at Byalalu near Bangalore are playing a crucial role in tracking and communicating with Chandrayaan-1 in such a high orbit.

The spacecraft performance is normal. More orbit raising manoeuvres are planned in the coming few days to take Chandrayaan-1 towards the Moon, ISRO said.