Chandrayaan-I, India's unmanned lunar spacecraft; injected into the last lap of its history-making journey to the moon.

Today's morning witnessed the successful carrying out of the fifth and final orbit, followed by injecting Chandrayaan-I into the lunar transfer trajectory.

Later this week, the spacecraft is expected to be injected into lunar orbit, which as of now is in EBN-5 orbit with an apogee of 380,000 kms from earth.

At around 4:56 am this morning during the manoeuvre, scientists from Indian Space Research Organization fired the spacecraft's 440 Newton liquid engine for 145 seconds, about two and a half minutes.

The space agency described this operation as a crucial and important milestone in the Chandrayaan-I mission.

The reporters at Ahmedabad were informed by ISRO chairman Dr G Madhavan Nair, "It (Chandrayaan-I) is being tracked by Spacecraft Control Centre at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network in Bangalore. Today we have done the last orbit-raising manoeuvre to enter the lunar transfer trajectory. If everything goes right, by 8 November, Chandrayaan-I will start orbiting the moon."

In Bangalore, ISRO spokesperson Mr S Satish said, "On Saturday evening, the lunar orbit insertion manoeuvres are planned to be carried out and Chandrayaan will be captured in the moon's orbit."