An illustration of the landing site of Chandrayaan-2

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Thursday released the first image of the Moon captured by Chandrayaan-2, which moved into a lower orbit around the Moon on Wednesday.

The picture was taken at a height of about 2650 km from the Lunar surface. The agency also said that Mare Orientale basin and Apollo craters were identified in the picture.


Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the spacecraft was functioning normally. Meanwhile, the crucial process of taking up the soft landing of the lander ‘Vikram’ on-board the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft will be taken up in the early hours of September 7, ISRO Chairman K Sivan said on Thursday.

“It is expected to make a soft landing (on the surface of the moon) at around 1.40 am and completed by 1.55 am. At the global level, this is an important mission. It is being keenly watched by everyone,” PTI quoted Sivan as saying.

Chandrayaan-2 is India’s first attempt to land a spacecraft on the Moon. Before landing on September 7, the Chandrayaan-2 composite module has to move much closer to the Moon, in a near-circular orbit of 100 km x 100 km. For this, it would have to carry out three more orbit -lowering manoeuvres.