India’s ambitious lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, accomplished its fifth and final lunar-bound orbital adjustment successfully yesterday.
Today, the Vikram lander of Chandrayaan-3 is scheduled to detach from the spacecraft’s propulsion module. The lander, along with the rover Pragyaan, is anticipated to make a touchdown on the lunar surface by August 23. Upon reaching the Moon, the Vikram lander will capture images of the Pragyaan rover, which will then deploy its scientific instruments to examine seismic activities on the Moon’s exterior.
Chandrayaan-3, India’s ambitious lunar venture, completed its fifth and ultimate lunar-bound orbital manoeuvre yesterday, drawing the spacecraft even closer to the lunar surface.
Having executed all necessary orbital manoeuvres, the spacecraft will now make preparations for the separation of the Vikram lander from the propulsion module.
The successful propulsion firing today, with a brief duration, has positioned Chandrayaan-3 into its intended orbit of 153 km by 163 km. This marks the conclusion of lunar-bound manoeuvres. ISRO communicated on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it is now time for the Propulsion Module and the Lander Module to prepare themselves for their individual trajectories.
For the tweet visit: https://twitter.com/isro/status/1691655268449603770?s=20
Chandrayaan-3 was launched into space using the LVM3 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14. After entering lunar orbit on August 5, the spacecraft is projected to make a lunar landing on August 23.
Yesterday, ISRO proficiently established the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into a circular lunar orbit of 153 kilometres by 163 kilometres, completing all lunar-bound manoeuvres.
Following the separation of the Vikram lander from the spacecraft, the propulsion module will continue its journey within the same orbit. Subsequently, on August 23, the Vikram lander will endeavour a gentle landing on the lunar surface.
The Vikram lander will capture images of the Pragyaan rover, which, in turn, will employ its laser beams to liquefy a portion of the lunar surface referred to as regolith. This process will be followed by an analysis of the emitted gases.”