The Lander Module of India’s Chandrayaan-3 successfully underwent a deboosting operation on Friday. The deboosting reduced its orbit, taking the mission a step closer to the moon.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s third mission in its series of lunar explorations is scheduled to make a soft-landing on the south pole of the moon on August 23. The Chandrayaan-3 mission was successfully launched on July 14 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The spacecraft entered the lunar orbit on August 5.
- Chandrayaan-3’s Lander, Rover Prep For Powered Descent
With the moon at a distance of 157 km, ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 is gearing up to make a powered descent onto the lunar surface to achieve the completion the nation’s third space mission to moon.
- Russia’s Luna-25 vs India’s Chandrayaan-3
Russia’s Luna-25, which was launched on August 10 is scheduled to land on August 21, while India’s third lunar mission is scheduled to make its soft landing on the moon’s south pole on August 23, two days after Russia’s spacecraft. Luna-25 joined Chandrayaan-3 in the lunar orbit on August 16.
- Vikram Lander’s 2nd Deboosting on August 20
ISRO posted on X that the second deboosting of Vikram Lander is scheduled for August 20. The first deboosting was successfully completed on Friday.
This second deboosting will take the mission further closer to the soft landing on the lunar south pole scheduled for August 23. A deboosting operation on the Lander Module of the Chandrayaan-3 Spacecraft was done at 4 pm on Friday. This operation reduced its orbit to 113 km x 157 km.
ISRO posted on X that the health of the LM is normal.
- ISRO Shares Moon’s Images, View From the Lander Imager Camera
The Indian Space Research Organisation shared the view from the Lander Image (LI) camera-1 on August 17, moments after the Lander Module separated from the Propulsion Module.
The Indian space agency also shared images of the moon captured by the Lander Position Detection Camera (LPDC) on August 15.
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