MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st August, 2023) India's unmanned space mission Chandrayaan-3 successfully completed its maneuvers on Earth's orbit and is heading toward the Moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said.
On July 14, the rocket carrying Chandrayaan-3 was successfully launched from a pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
"Chandrayaan-3 completes its orbits around the Earth and heads towards the Moon. A successful perigee-firing performed at ISTRAC (Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network), ISRO has injected the spacecraft into the translunar orbit. Next stop: the Moon," the ISRO tweeted late on Monday.
The mission is expected to reach the lunar orbit on August 5. Then, the spacecraft will ignite its engines once again to stabilize the orbit at around 60 miles above the Moon's surface.
Chandrayaan-3 consists of a lander, a propulsion module and a lunar rover. The separation of the lander is scheduled for August 17, while the landing on the Moon is planned at 17:47 local time (12:17 GMT) on August 23.
The launch of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission was originally scheduled for 2020 but later was postponed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and reforms in the Indian space sector.
The previous Indian lunar mission � Chandrayaan-2 � entered the Moon's orbit on August 20, 2019. Its landing module was supposed to make a controlled descent to the surface of Earth's only natural satellite on September 6. However, at an altitude of 1.2 miles, the lander deviated from its planned trajectory and crashed. After a series of unsuccessful attempts, the ISRO stopped trying to restore contact with the lander.
