- A retro-burning at the Perilune was commanded from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), ISTRAC, Bangalore, tweets ISRO
Bangalore, August 6. Over five moves in the three weeks since, ISRO has been lifting the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbits farther and farther away from Earth.
On August 1 in a key manoeuvre — a slingshot move — the craft was sent successfully towards the Moon from Earth’s orbit.
The spacecraft had completed its orbits around Earth on August 1 and began its trans-lunar journey towards the Moon. The Lunar Orbit Injection LOI manoeuvre was executed by ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network. The next operation – reduction of orbit – is scheduled for Aug 6 at around 11 pm IST
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was successfully injected into Moon’s orbit on Saturday, Indian Space Research Organisation said.
The manoeuvre was performed when Chandrayaan-3 was at the closest point to the Moon (Perilune), ISRO said.
The space agency earlier said that the health of India’s third lunar mission is normal and a soft-landing on the lunar surface would be attempted on August 23.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has covered about two-thirds of the distance to the Moon since its launch on July 14, ISRO said.
Chandrayaan-3 is the third lunar expedition by India which was successfully launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14. The mission aims to have a soft landing on the surface of the Moon. It carries a set of eight payloads. All these instruments will be performing different experiments on the moon’s surface, including studying the thermo-physical behaviour of the surface and will also examine the resource of the soil.
The mission also aims to detect and study the lunar quakes on the surface through one of the instruments that Chandrayaan-3 carried. This research will be important for further exploration as well.
Chandrayaan-3 mission is another stepping stone towards the future of space missions which follows the footsteps of Chandrayaan-2 which was not accomplished due to the lander’s unfortunate crash during the lunar orbit injection.
