Indian spacecraft undergoes final lunar orbit manoeuvre, says ISRO
BY - rivanshi rakhrai
ISRO is embarking to achieve a successful soft landing on the Moon with the launch of Chandrayaan-3
The spacecraft is now primed for its scheduled moon landing on August 23
The mission was launched effectively on July 14 via the GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota
Chandrayaan-3 completed five Earth-bound manoeuvres between July 15 and 25
ISRO has named the lander after Dr Vikram A Sarabhai, the father of the Indian Space Programme. According to the ISRO, the Vikram lander consists of three payloads for its objectives
After the completion of five orbit reduction manoeuvres, Chandrayyan-3 is gearing up for most crucial operation that will take place tomorrow August 17
On Thursday, Propulsion Module and Lander Module will be separated while in orbit. The propulsion module carries Lander Vikram and Rover Pragyan is accomodated inside Lander Module
Chandrayaan-3 was put into an orbit of 153 km x 163 km a few hours ago
On average, the moon is approximately 238,860 miles (382,500 km) away from Earth, equivalent to about 30 Earth diameters