Chandrayaan-2 completes 1 year around moon, instruments performing well

India's second lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 has completed a year around the moon in the lunar orbit. The orbiter has completed 4,400 orbits around the moon and all its instruments are currently performing well. Chandrayaan-2 acquired images during 220 orbits consisting of nearly 4 million sq. km area of moon surface. It also has images of Balmer-Kapteyn (B-K) basin region which is located on the east limb of the moon. This area is of scientific importance as it contains a type of light plains deposit that appears to lie on the top of an ancient basaltic surface. Chandrayaan-2 was launched for detailed studies of topography, mineralogy, surface chemical composition etc. It was launched on July 22, 2019 and inserted into the lunar orbit on August 20, 2019, exactly one year ago. Though the soft-landing attempt was not successful, the orbiter, which was equipped with eight scientific instruments, was successfully placed in the lunar orbit.