ISRO raises the orbit of Chandrayaan-3 by firing the onboard motors

The Indian space agency on Tuesday successfully raised the orbit of its moon spacecraft Chandrayaan-3.

The third orbit-raising maneuver (Earth-bound perigee firing) was performed successfully from ISTRAC/ISRO, Bengaluru. The next firing is planned for July 20, 2023, between 2 and 3 pm IST, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was put into orbit on July 15, 2023 in a copybook style by India’s heavy lift rocket LVM3.

On the same day, the first orbit raising was done and the second orbit raising was carried out on July 17, 2023.

The spacecraft’s orbit will be raised to put it on Lunar Transfer Trajectory.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprises a propulsion module (weighing 2,148 kg), a lander (1,723.89 kg) and a rover (26 kg), the ISRO said.

The main object of the mission is to safely land the lander on the lunar soil.

The lander will get separated from the propulsion module a couple of days after it enters lunar orbit.

The lander is expected to make a soft-landing near the South Pole of the moon on August 23 evening at 5.47 p.m.

The lander will descend to the moon from a height of about 100 km from the moon’s surface.

The soft landing is a tricky issue as it involves a series of complex manoeuvres consisting of rough and fine braking.

Imaging of the landing site region prior to landing will be done for finding safe and hazard-free zones.

Subsequent to the soft landing, the six-wheeled rover will roll out and carry out experiments on the lunar surface for a period of one lunar day which is equal to 14 Earth days.