On 25 October SMART-1 fired, for the last time, the electric propulsion engine. This small correction manoeuvre of about 4 hours was necessary to correct the slight over-performance of the engine during the last long burn of 100 hours (10-14 October) during the 'third resonance".
From now on the spacecraft will proceed unpowered in its journey towards the Moon – where it will arrive on 15 November. In the meantime, SMART-1 will perform another two revolutions around the Earth.
The last time SMART-1 will approach the Earth, the last perigee, will be on 2 November at 07:28 UTC and finally the last part of the Earth orbit will lead to the capture by the Moon and the first perilune on 15 November at 17:56 UTC.
Up to 26 October, and the 289th engine pulse, the SMART-1 electric propulsion system has cumulated a total ON time of nearly 3648 hr, consumed about 58.8 kg of Xenon and imparted to the spacecraft a velocity increment of about 2737 ms-1.
The electric propulsion firing will be resumed only in lunar orbit on 15 November at 05:28 UTC for a 4.5 days long burn, to reduce the lunar orbit.
Orbital/Trajectory information
