Chandrayaan-3 update: Spacecraft on its way to enter moon's 'sphere of influence', says ISRO

In a significant update on the Chandrayaan-3 mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday said that the spacecraft's health is in normal condition. 

The space agency, in a tweet, added that perigee burn, a critical manoeuvre, was successfully executed, resulting in raising Chandrayaan-3's orbit to 288 km x 369328 km. This new orbit now brings the spacecraft within the moon's sphere of influence, it said.

The next crucial step for the mission is the Lunar Orbit Injection (LOI), which will be achieved through a maneuver at perilune. The LOI is planned for August 5, 2023.

This comes following ISRO’s midnight update on Chandrayan on Tuesday where the agency confirmed that  the spacecraft had completed its orbits around the Earth and is now heading towards the Moon. 

Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission, was successfully launched on July 14, 2023, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The spacecraft is expected to reach the Moon and make a soft landing on August 23-24. After a touchdown, the Rover will disembark from the lander module and make use of its advanced APXS (Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer) payloads.

Earlier, the spacecraft's orbit was progressively increased five times after the Chandrayaan-3 mission to Moon was launched on July 14.

The current mission follows Chandrayaan-2, which experienced a last-minute glitch leading to the lander crashing after entering lunar orbit. The spacecraft comprises a lander and rover, developed by ISRO, designed to safely land on the lunar surface, collect data, and conduct a series of scientific experiments.

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