The Indian Space Research Organisation on Thursday said that India’s second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 completed one year in orbit around the moon on Thursday.

The space agency said all instruments of the Chandrayaan-2 are performing well and there is adequate onboard fuel to keep it operational for about seven more years, reported PTI.

Exactly a year on August 20, Chandrayaan-2, which was launched on July 22, 2019, inserted into the lunar orbit. 

The space agency, in a statement said, “The orbiter completed more than 4,400 orbits around the Moon and all the instruments are currently performing well.”

“The orbiter is being maintained in 100 +/- 25 km polar orbit with periodic orbit maintenance (OM) maneuvers. So far, 17 OMs are carried out since achieving 100 km lunar orbit on 24th September 2019. There is adequate onboard fuel to remain operational for about seven years,” it added.

Chandrayaan-2 mission was India’s first attempt to make a softlanding of a rover on the unchartered South Pole of the lunar surface.

However, the lander Vikram hard-landed in September last year.

ISRO said raw data from the payloads have been downloaded at the Indian Space Science Data Centre (ISSDC) during the year and will be made public by end of this year, after validation by a formal peer review.

The mission was launched to further expand the knowledge about the moon through a detailed study of its topography, mineralogy, surface chemical composition, thermo- physical characteristics and atmosphere, leading to a better understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon.

India’s first mission to the Moon Chandrayaan-1, launched in 2008, had given clear evidence on the extensive presence of surface water and the indication for subsurface polar water- ice deposits.