* Astronomy

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RE: Chandrayan-1

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India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 will cruise closer to the moon early Tuesday when it makes the transition from the earth's elliptical orbit into deeper space, a top space agency official said Monday.

"The liquid apogee motor (LAM) on board will be fired around 5.00 a.m. Tuesday for about five minutes to make the transition and position the spacecraft at about 500 km from the moon's surface and over 384,000 km away from the earth" Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director S. Satish.

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Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair Friday briefed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the success of Indias maiden moon mission and presented him models of Chandrayaan-I and its launch vehicle PSLV. Nair briefed the prime minister about the launch sequence and subsequent manoeuvring of the spacecraft to reach the final lunar orbit.

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PM sees first pictures from Chandrayaan
With Chandrayaan-I creating waves the world over, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was on Friday shown the first pictures sent by India's maiden unmanned scientific mission to Moon.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G Madhavan Nair met Singh here on Friday afternoon and briefed him on the lunar mission launched on October 22.

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Chandrayaan camera clicks earth from deep space
The terrain mapping camera onboard India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 took excellent shots of the earth from deep space in black and white, the space agency said here Friday.

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Chandrayaan-1 Camera Tested

The Terrain Mapping camera (TMC) on board Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft was successfully operated on October 29, 2008 through a series of commands issued from the Spacecraft
Control Centre of ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore.

Earth as Viewed by Chandrayaan-1: Click for Full Image

Analysis of the first imagery received by the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) at Byalalu and later processed by Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) confirms excellent performance of the camera.The first imagery (image 1) taken at 8:00 am IST from a height of 9,000 km shows the Northern coast of Australia while the other (image 2) taken at 12:30 pm from a height of 70,000 km shows Australias Southern Coast.

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Chandrayaan orbit to be raised to 267,000 km: ISRO
The earth orbit of India's first lunar spacecraft will be raised to 267,000 km Wednesday, an official here said.

"The Chandrayaan spacecraft, orbiting at a distance of around 165,000 km apogee (farthest point from earth) will be raised Wednesday to around 267,000 km. As of now, everything is normal and as per our expectations" - M. Annadurai, Chandrayaan-1 project director.

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Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft has entered deep space after crossing the 150,000 km (one and a half lakh km) distance mark from the Earth. This happened after the successful completion of the spacecrafts third orbit raising manoeuvre today (October 26, 2008) morning.

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How India flew to the moon economy class
Chandrayaan-1, now on its way to the moon, has cost less than one-tenth of the Indian Premier League (IPL) rights bagged by Sony Entertainment. Rocket science may be no match for cricket when it comes to listing some of India's favourite things, but the frugality of its space odyssey could be a lesson to the world.

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Chandrayaan raised to 75,000 km height
India's Chandrayaan-1 has covered 20 percent of its journey towards Moon as ISRO scientists on Saturday performed the second orbit-raising manoeuvre.
The lunar spacecraft's on-board 440 Newton Liquid engine was fired for about 16 minutes from 5.48 am.
With this engine firing, Chandrayaan-1's apogee (farthest point to earth) has been raised to 74,715 km, while its perigee (closest point to earth) has been raised to 336 km, ISRO spokesperson S Satish said.

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