New Delhi: Chandrayaan-3, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) lunar mission, has achieved a nearly circular orbit around the Moon. This comes after a successful manoeuvre on Wednesday, which positioned the spacecraft into a lunar orbit of 153*163km. Today, the Vikram lander is set to detach from the propulsion module.
As Chandrayaan-3 continues to draw closer to its targeted lunar touchdown, another contender in lunar exploration, Luna-25, the Russian lunar mission launched just last week, has successfully entered lunar orbit and is gearing up for a soft landing attempt on the lunar surface between August 21 and 23. This timing potentially positions Luna-25 ahead of Chandrayaan-3’s planned touchdown on August 23.
Continuing its journey towards a lunar landing, the Chandrayaan-3 executed its fifth and final lunar-bound orbit manoeuvre, positioning itself even closer to the Moon’s surface. With this, the Indian spacecraft has now completed all the required Moon-bound manoeuvres, paving the way for the upcoming separation of the lander module – a composition of the lander and rover – from the propulsion module.
After separation, the lander will undergo a “deboost” to position itself in an orbit with a closest point (Perilune) of 30km and a farthest point (Apolune) of 100km. This orbit sets the stage for the planned soft landing attempt on the lunar south pole on August 23 at 5:47 pm.
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