NEW DELHI, July 25: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday successfully completed the fifth and final orbit-raising manoeuvre (Earth-bound perigee firing) of the Chandrayaan-3 mission from ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru.
The spacecraft is expected to attain an orbit of 127609 km x 236 km. This means that Chandrayaan-3 is now in an orbit, which when closest to earth is at 236 km and farthest at 127609 km. “The achieved orbit will be confirmed after the observations,” ISRO said after the successful orbit-raising manoeuvre.
The four earlier orbit-raising manoeuvres were performed by ISTRAC between July 15 and July 20. Following the final orbit-raising manoeuvre ISRO will perform the TransLunar Injection (TLI) on August 1. “The next firing, the TransLunar Injection (TLI), is planned for August 1, 2023, between 12 midnight and 1 am IST,” ISRO said.
The Chandrayaan-3 consists of a Lander module (LM), Propulsion module (PM) and a Rover which was launched by the LVM3-M4 on July 14. After the TLI takes place, the PM and LM separation would happen on August 17. A series of deboost manoeuvres is also scheduled to take place before the power descent phase for the soft landing on the moon. The lander is expected to touch down on the moon surface on August 23 at 5.47 p.m.
(Manas Dasgupta)
