India's second Moon spacecraft Chandrayaan-2 put into earth orbit on July 22, on Monday, successfully completed its third earth-bound orbit raising maneuver, ISRO said.
The first one was performed on July 24, and the second on July 26.
The Chandrayaan-2 is scheduled to reach the Moon by August 20, the Indian space agency had earlier said.
"#Chandrayaan2 Today after performing the third orbit raising maneuver, we are now 3 steps closer to the moon !!!#ISRO" the ISRO said, on Monday.
On July 22, the Chandrayaan-2 was injected into an elliptical orbit of 170x45,475 km by India's heavylift rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV Mk III) in a text book style.
The spacecraft Chandrayaan-2 comprises three segments - the Orbiter (weighing 2,379 kg, eight payloads), the lander 'Vikram' (1,471 kg, four payloads) and rover 'Pragyan' (27 kg, two payloads).
The Indian space agency said the major activites include earth bound maneuvers, Trans Lunar Insertion, Lunar bound maneuvers, the lander Vikram separation from Chandrayaan-2 and Vikram touch down on the Moon's South Pole.
The Isro said the Trans Lunar Insertion of Chandrayaan-2 is scheduled on August 14, 2019, which will send the spacecraft to Moon.
After that, the Chandrayaan-2 is scheduled to reach Moon by August 20, 2019, the Isro said.
According to Isro, the lander Vikram will land on the Moon on September 7.
Originally the GSLV-Mk III rocket carrying Chandrayaan-2 was supposed to fly on July 15. Owing to a serious technical glitch the flight was postponed to July 22.
As a result, there are changes in the mission schedule.
As per the July 15 flight schedule, Chandrayaan-2's earth bound phase was 17 days and it is 23 days as per the new schedule.
On the other hand, the lunar bound phase which was for 28 days for July 15 flight schedule, has come down to 13 days.
Originally Vikram was planned to land on the Moon 54 days after the rocket's lift off and now the landing will take place in 48 days.
