There is a saying in Marathi that roughly translates to "drop by drop does the ocean grow". The Chandrayaan-1 it seems has started doing just that :-)
Today The Hindu reported that Chandrayaan-1 had been lowered yet more with the aposelene dropping from 7502 km to 255 km and periselene from 200 km to 187 km. This means the spacecraft has now closed in towards to moon from an orbit of 200 x 7502 km to 187 x 255 km!!
Will this be the last step to reaching the targetted 00 x 100 km? Lets wait and watch. Try as much I have not been able to get a schedule for all the maneuvers of Chandrayaan-1.
This article dated 11-Nov-2008 on The Hindu did mention two remaining stages until the desired lunar orbit is achieved. According to it today's move was supposed to attain a 200 x 200 km orbit. The third would have been the final orbit of 100 x 100 km. That does not seem the case now. However there is also mention of possible additional steps if/as needed. I'd guess the main idea being to perform the lowering in small steady precise steps.
Oh, ISRO has also released Chandrayaan-1's first picture of the moon!! Didn't I say the excitement was just beginning?!
And on a flip side trust the chaps at slashdot to always chip in with something hilarious :-)
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