The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) diverted a collision between the Orbiter part of India’s Chandrayaan-2, and the US Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). An ISRO spokesman said the Chandrayan-2 orbiter (CH2O) had been diverted to avoid a major collision.
The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter and NASA’s LRA had predicted that the Moon would be very close to the North Pole on October 20. ISRO and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) estimated that the distance between the two spacecraft would be less than 3 kilometres.
At 11.15 am on October 20, the spacecraft was expected to come close together. In anticipation of this, the two space agencies agreed to change the satellite’s trajectory and redirected on October 18.
Both CH2O, LRO orbits the Moon in a nearly polar orbit. As a result, the two spacecrafts came closer over the lunar poles. The Indian Orbiter has been orbiting the Moon for the past two years. It is common for spacecraft to change position to avoid collisions with space objects. However, this is the first time such a close encounter has occurred for an ISRO space exploration mission, necessitating an evasive manoeuvre.
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