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Bangalore, Nov. 4 ISRO’s scientists gave Chandrayaan-1 a fresh boost on Tuesday morning to put it further on track to the moon.

With this fifth and final orbit-raising operation, the lunar craft now stops circling earth and will head towards a path 3.8 lakh km from the lunar surface by Saturday, ISRO’s spokesman, Mr S. Satish, said.

Before entering the “lunar transfer trajectory”, the spacecraft was going round earth elliptically with its farthest point at 2.67 lakh km.

Once it reaches the vicinity of the moon, Chandrayaan-1 will again be gradually pushed closer to an orbit 100 km from the lunar surface by the middle of this month. It will be caught by the moon’s gravity and start orbiting the earth’s only natural satellite for the next two years pole to pole.

The spacecraft is being tracked and controlled by the Spacecraft Control Centre and the Deep Space Network of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking & Command Network from Byalalu near here.

ISRO said all the systems on the spacecraft were performing well. It is carrying 11 scientific instruments and a Moon Impact Probe that will crash-land on the lunar surface.

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