Chandrayaan-3, India’s third moon mission, took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Station in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota on July 14. It is expected to reach the moon’s South Pole for a soft landing with a lander and rover on August 23.
Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft completed its fifth and final orbit-raising manoeuvre on Tuesday, preparing for lunar insertion. The next step is to shift to an Earth-to-Moon trajectory, where the Moon’s gravity will eventually pull it into lunar orbit. The ultimate goal is a soft landing on the lunar surface.
After completing the fourth orbit-raising manoeuvre on July 20, the Chandrayaan-3 successfully executed the fifth and final manoeuvre between 2:00 and 3:00 pm on July 25, 2023. This is a pivotal point in the spacecraft’s journey to the moon. The Indian Space Research Organisation has confirmed that India’s third lunar mission is currently on target for its trip to the south pole of the Moon.
“The orbit-raising manoeuvre (Earth-bound perigee firing) is performed successfully from ISTRAC/ISRO, Bengaluru. The spacecraft is expected to attain an orbit of 127609 km x 236 km. The achieved orbit will be confirmed after the observations,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) tweeted.
ISRO added that the next firing, the TransLunar Injection (TLI), is planned for August 1, between 12 midnight and 1 am IST.
By doing so, India would join the group of elite nations (the United States, erstwhile Soviet Union and China) that had achieved the feat.
