Chandrayaan-3 enters lunar orbit

ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 entered the lunar orbit on August 5. The spacecraft has covered two-thirds of the distance to the Moon. Minister Jitendra Singh assures "nothing to worry" as the landing will occur in a week. ISRO will perform manoeuvre when Chandrayaan-3's orbit is closest to the Moon.

Chandrayaan-3 entered the Moon’s orbit after the Indian Space and Research Organisation successfully carried out the Lunar Orbit Injection manoeuvre after 7 p.m. IST on August 5.

“Chandrayaan-3 has been successfully inserted into the lunar orbit. A retro-burning at the Perilune was commanded from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), ISTRAC, Bengaluru. The next operation - reduction of orbit – is scheduled for Aug 6, 2023, around 23:00 Hrs. IST, “ ISRO said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has covered about two-thirds of the distance to the Moon since its launch on July 14, ISRO said on August 4.

Over five moves in the three weeks since, ISRO has been lifting the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbits farther and farther away from Earth. Then, on August 1 in a key manoeuvre — a slingshot move — the craft was sent successfully towards the Moon from Earth’s orbit.

Following the 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. On August 5, in another crucial manoeuvre the spacecraft will be injected into Moon’s orbit.

The manoeuvre will be performed at a point when Chandrayaan-3’s orbit is closest to the Moon, ISRO said.

The space agency earlier said that the health of the spacecraft is normal and a soft-landing on the lunar surface would be attempted on August 23.