Chandrayaan 3 completes all lunar bound maneuvers, confirms ISRO
By: Pune Pulse
August 16, 2023
Pune: With just a week left for Chandrayaan’s 3 moon landing, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on August 16 has successfully carried out the fifth and final orbit reduction maneuver.
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has confirmed this on their X (formerly known as Twitter) handle: “Today’s successful firing, needed for a short duration, has put Chandrayaan-3 into an orbit of 153 km x 163 km, as intended. With this, the lunar bound maneuvers are completed. It’s time for preparations as the Propulsion Module and the Lander Module gear up for their separate journeys. Separation of the Lander Module from the Propulsion Module is planned for August 17, 2023.”
India is all set to make history by becoming the fourth country, after the US, Russia and China, in the world to land a spacecraft on the Moon after the launch of India’s third lunar expedition, Chandrayaan 3, on July 14 using the country’s largest heavy-lift rocket (GSLV Mark 3) for the first time. The mission is set to land on the moon’s surface on August 23, making it India’s second attempt to land on the Moon’s surface after India’s successful missions to the Moon in the past.
The spacecraft entered lunar orbit on August 5, 2023. In order to land safely, there is a complicated process of reducing the velocity of the lander from 30 km to 20 km. Also, the transitional phase, which changes the horizontal orientation of the spacecraft from vertical to horizontal, is another challenge that ISRO engineers will have to face. The work that has been done in preparing for the final descent on the exterior of the Moon, scheduled for August 23, is of utmost importance.
