India's Chandrayaan-3 only 4,313 km away from moon, performs orbit reduction maneuver successfully

• Image Credit: google

• Aug 7, 2023 | Poonam Nath

Only 4,313 km from the moon, India's third lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, successfully performs an orbit reduction manoeuvre...

Digital Desk:  After a day of sending India's third moon mission Chandrayaan-3 into lunar orbit, the Indian Space Research Organisation announced that it has successfully completed the orbit-lowering procedure. 

The next similar operation, according to the space agency, will take place on August 9. 

"The spacecraft successfully underwent a planned orbit reduction maneuvre. The retrofitting of engines brought it closer to the moon's surface, now to 170 km x 4,313 km." As stated in an ISRO tweet.

"The next operation to further reduce the orbit is scheduled for August 9, 2023, between 1300 and 1400 hrs IST," ISRO said in a tweet on Sunday.

There will be three more moon-bound operations up until August 17, after which the landing module, which includes the lander and rover, will separate from the propulsion module. 

Following that, the lander will perform de-orbiting operations before making its final drop to the moon. 

On August 23, ISRO said it will attempt a soft landing on the moon's surface. ISRO has lifted the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbits further and farther away from Earth in five manoeuvres in the three weeks since its launch on July 14. 

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-up mission to Chandrayaan-2 that will show end-to-end capabilities in safe lunar landing and wandering.