Inputs by Shuchi Giridhar
At 7:00 p.m. on August 5, Chandrayaan 3 was successfully inserted into the inner orbit of the moon by The Indian Space Research Organisation.
Chandrayaan III sent a video as it entered the lunar orbit.
The original video can be seen online here.
This is an important step in Chandrayaan’s journey.
The next milestone is on August 6th, at about 2300 hours IST. At this time, the first reduction of the orbit will be done. This means that Chandrayaan will move to an orbit closer to the moon.
Update: This was also completed successfully.
Over the next 18 days, the probe will be slowly reduced while bringing the spacecraft to orbit of about 100 kms above the moon’s surface before attempting a soft landing at 5.47 pm on August 23.
The immediate
After executing some maneuvers, the propulsion module of the aircraft will separate from the lander. This will be followed by a series of complex breaking manoeuvres, until it has executed a soft landing on the moon’s south pole.
The Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO’s Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru is tracking the health of the spacecraft.
This is the third time that India has successfully inserted a spacecraft into the lunar orbit.