Chandrayaan-3 enters the lunar orbit

(Credit : ISRO)

New Delhi – On Saturday, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully entered the lunar orbit. If the rest of the current mission goes to plan, the mission will safely touch down near the Moon’s little-explored South Pole between 23rd and 24th August. Since its launch on 14th July, ISRO has been lifting the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbits farther and farther away from Earth.

The Moon, as viewed by #Chandrayaan3 spacecraft during Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) on August 5, 2023.#ISRO pic.twitter.com/xQtVyLTu0c

— LVM3-M4/CHANDRAYAAN-3 MISSION (@chandrayaan_3) August 6, 2023

Update from ISRO

Today, the Chandrayaan-3 mission achieved a crucial milestone with the successful completion of the Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI). The insertion was carried out by retro-burning at the Perilune for 1835 seconds, starting at 19:12 Hrs IST. The maneuver resulted in an orbit of 164 km x 18074 km, as intended.

This is the third time in succession that ISRO has successfully inserted its spacecraft into the lunar orbit, apart from doing so into the Martian orbit.

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. 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 South Polar region of the Moon on August 23, 2023.

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 ESA and JPL Deep space antenna.

The next Lunar bound orbit maneuver is scheduled for August 6, 2023, between 22:30 and 23:30 Hrs IST.