"Chandrayaan-3 feeling lunar gravity": India’s mission now closer to Moon

Mangalore Today News Network / NDTV

Bengaluru, Aug 05, 2023: India’s ambitious third moon mission, Chandrayaan-3 was successfully inserted into the lunar orbit on Saturday, the ISRO said. The required manoeuvre was done from an ISRO facility, the city-headquartered space agency said in a tweet.

 

"Chandrayaan-3 has been successfully inserted into the lunar orbit. A retro-burning at the Perilune was commanded from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), ISTRAC ( ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network), Bengaluru," the agency said in a tweet.

 

Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
The spacecraft has covered about two-thirds of the distance to the moon.

Lunar Orbit Injection (LOI) set for Aug 5, 2023, around 19:00 Hrs. IST. pic.twitter.com/MhIOE65w3V

— ISRO (@isro) August 4, 2023

Perilune is the spacecraft’s closest point to the moon.

The next operation - reduction of orbit - will be done at 11 PM on Sunday, ISRO added.

ISRO also shared a message from the satellite to its centres, which read, "MOX, ISTRAC, this is Chandrayaan-3. I am feeling lunar gravity." Over five moves in the three weeks since the launch on July 14, ISRO has been lifting the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbits farther and farther away from the Earth.

Then, on August 1 in a key maneuver -- a slingshot move -- the craft was sent successfully towards the Moon from Earth’s orbit.

Following this trans-lunar injection, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft escaped from orbiting the Earth and began following a path that would take it to the vicinity of the moon.