Chennai, August 9: India’s Chandrayaan-3, the nation’s third Lunar Mission, has achieved a significant milestone by moving even closer to the moon’s surface. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully executed a crucial maneuver on Wednesday afternoon to further reduce the orbit of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, bringing it in closer proximity to the lunar surface.
The second orbit reduction operation was carried out between 1300 and 1400 hrs, as announced by ISRO in a tweet. The agency stated, “Chandrayaan-3 Mission: Even closer to the moon’s surface.” The maneuver effectively reduced the spacecraft’s orbit to 174 km x 1437 km.
ISRO shared that the next operation is scheduled for August 14, 2023, between 11:30 and 12:30 Hrs. IST.
Following the spacecraft’s injection into the Lunar Orbit on August 5, Chandrayaan-3 successfully underwent a planned orbit reduction maneuver on the subsequent Sunday night. With the retrofitting of engines, the spacecraft’s orbit has been brought closer to the Moon’s surface at 170 x 4313 km.
This recent maneuver marks the initiation of a series of planned actions aimed at gradually decreasing Chandrayaan-3’s orbit and positioning it over the lunar poles. The lunar-bound orbit maneuver occurred between 2230 hrs and 2330 hrs on Sunday night.
As the mission progresses, more maneuvers have been mapped out to progressively lower Chandrayaan-3’s orbit and position it accurately over the Moon’s poles, according to ISRO.
In the subsequent stages of the mission, the propulsion module will separate from the lander while in orbit. A sequence of intricate braking maneuvers will then be executed to ensure a soft landing in the previously unexplored South Polar region of the Moon, targeted for August 23.
ISRO confirmed that the health of Chandrayaan-3 remains stable. “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.”
