Key Takeaways
- The second orbit reduction lowered Chandrayaan-3’s path to about 174 km perigee.
- ISRO announced the spacecraft is now even closer to the moon’s surface, paving the way for a polar landing.
- Future maneuvers are scheduled for mid‑August, with the propulsion module set to separate before the final descent.
Chennai: India’s third Lunar Mission Chandrayaan-3 has moved even closer to the moon’s surface. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday afternoon successfully performed yet another crucial manoeuvre to further reduce the
Orbit of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft and took it even closer to the moon’s surface.
The second operation to further reduce the orbit was performed between 1300 and 1400 hrs.
In a tweet, ISRO said “Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Even closer to the moon’s surface.”
“Chandrayaan-3’s orbit is reduced to 174 km x 1437 km following a manuevre performed today”, it said.
“The next operation is scheduled for August 14, 2023, between 11:30 and 12:30 Hrs. IST”, ISRO added.
After the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was injected into the Lunar Orbit on August 5, it had successfully underwent the planned Orbit reduction manoeuver late on Sunday night.
The retrofiring of engines has brought the spacecraft closer to the Moon’s surface to 170 X 4313 km.
This maneuver was the first in a series of maneuvers planned to gradually reduce Chandrayaan-3’s Orbit and position it over the Lunar poles.
The Lunar bound orbit maneuver was performed between 2230 hrs and 2330 hrs on Sunday night.
“As the mission progresses, a series of maneuvers have been planned to gradually reduce Chandrayaan-3’s orbit and position it over the lunar poles”, ISRO said.
After some maneuvers, the propulsion module will separate from the lander while in orbit. Following that, a series of complex braking maneuvers will be executed to facilitate a soft landing in the hitherto unexplored South Polar region of the Moon on August 23.
The Space Agency said the health of Chandrayaan-3 is normal. “Throughout the mission, the health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (ISTRAC), the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antenna at Byalalu, near Bengaluru, with the support from European Space Agency (ESA) and JPL Deep space antenna.
