The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday has successfully carried out the orbit reduction manoeuvre paving way for the Chandrayaan-3 mission to inch closer to the moon.
The Chandrayaan-3 has successfully inserted into the lunar orbit on Saturday.
The space agency said it will carry out the next operation on August 9.
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
“The spacecraft successfully underwent a planned orbit reduction manoeuvre. The retrofiring of engines brought it closer to the moon's surface, now to 170 km x 4,313 km...The next operation to further reduce the orbit is scheduled for August 9, 2023, between 1300 and 1400 hrs IST,” ISRO tweeted on Sunday.
Till August 17, there will be three more moon-bound manoeuvres before the landing module breaking away from the propulsion module.
According to ISRO, de-orbiting manoeuvres will carried out on the lander before the final descent on the moon.
The soft landing on the moon's surface is expected on August 23.
Since the launch on July 14, ISRO has been lifting the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbits away from the Earth in over five moves.
Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.
The spacecraft comprises an indigenous propulsion module, a lander module and a rover to develop and demonstrate new technologies required for inter-planetary missions.
Till 100 km of lunar orbit, the propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration.
The propulsion module has a Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and polarimetric measurements of the earth from the lunar orbit.
The lander and rover have scientific payloads capable of carrying out experiments on the lunar surface.
(With PTI inputs)
