ISRO finally beat everyone to the finish line! The final and most important news was out there on the ISRO press release before any news papers could claim it as _breaking news_.
Quoting from the ISRO PR note:
Today, Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has successfully reached its intended operational orbit at a height of about 100 km from the lunar surface.
With this, the carefully planned complex sequence of operations to carry Chandrayaan-1 from its initial Earth orbit to its intended operational lunar orbit with the use of its liquid engine has been successfully completed.
It is intended to conduct chemical, mineralogical and photo geological mapping of the moon with Chandrayaan-1’s 11 scientific instruments (payloads). Two of those 11 payloads – Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) and Radiation Dose Monitor (RADOM) – have already been successfully switched ON. TMC has successfully taken the pictures of Earth and moon.
Now we await the launching of the MIP, sometime between 14 & 15 Nov.
Times of India mentioned this rather sordidly as "the final resting orbit", which ominously makes it sound like the end rather than the start to new adventures!
It's too surreal to believe; but better get used to this feeling quickly :-)
PS: The entire chronology is here at http://chandan.name/Chandrayaan-1.htm
3 weeks ago
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