Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft covers two-thirds of distance to Moon, Lunar Orbit Injection tomorrow

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has covered about two-thirds of the distance to the Moon since its launch on July 14, ISRO said on Friday.

Over five moves in the three weeks since, ISRO has been lifting the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbits farther and farther away from Earth. Then, on August 1 in a key manoeuvre — 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. Tomorrow, in another crucial manoeuvre the spacecraft will be injected into Moon’s orbit.

The Lunar Orbit Injection (LOI) is set for around 7 pm on August 5, the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said on Friday.

The manoeuvre will be performed when Chandrayaan-3 is at the closest point to the Moon (perilune), ISRO said. The space agency earlier said that the health of India’s third lunar mission is normal and a soft-landing on the lunar surface would be attempted on August 23.