India Ambitious Chandrayaan-3 Completes All Lunar-Bound Manoeuvres

India's ambitious third Moon mission's spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 on Wednesday completed all lunar-bound manoeuvres and entered an orbit of 153 km x 163 km, as intended, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

"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 maneuvres 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," it tweeted.

Post its launch on July 14, Chandrayaan-3 entered into the lunar orbit on August 5, following which two orbit reduction maneuvers were carried out on August 6 and 9.

"Orbit circularisation phase commences. Precise maneuver performed today has achieved a near-circular orbit of 150 km x 177 km," ISRO said in a tweet.

As the mission progresses, a series of maneuvers is being conducted by ISRO to gradually reduce Chandrayaan-3's orbit and position it over the lunar poles.

Over five moves in the three weeks since the July 14 launch, ISRO had lifted the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbits farther and farther away from the Earth.

Then, on August 1 in a key maneuver - a slingshot move - the spacecraft was sent successfully towards the Moon from Earth's orbit. Following this trans-lunar injection, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft escaped from orbiting the Earth and began following a path that would take it to the vicinity of the moon.

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.

It comprises an indigenous propulsion module, lander module, and a rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for inter-planetary missions.

The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit. The propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and polarimetric measurements of earth from the lunar orbit.

The mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 are to demonstrate safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, to demonstrate rover roving on the Moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

The lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover that will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the Moon's surface during the course of its mobility.

The lander and the rover have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface.