India's Chandrayaan-2 Spacecraft Avoids Collision With NASA's Orbiter

Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft performed an evasive manoeuvre to mitigate the close approach risk with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

India's Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft performed an evasive manoeuvre to avoid collision with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

A very close conjunction between Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter (CH2O) and LRO of NASA was expected to occur on October 20 this year at 05:45 UTC (11:15 am IST) near the Lunar North pole, the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency said in a statement.

Over a span of one week prior to the conjunction, analyses by both ISRO and JPL/NASA consistently showed that the radial separation between the two spacecraft would be less than 100 metres and the closest approach distance would be only about three km at the time of closest approach.

Both the agencies deemed that the situation warranted a collision avoidance manoeuvre (CAM) to mitigate the close approach risk, and it was mutually agreed that CH2O would undergo the CAM.