Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft completed its orbits around the earth and is now heading towards the moon, Indian Space Research Organisation said in the early hours of Tuesday (August 1).
“Chandrayaan-3 completes its orbits around the Earth and heads towards the Moon. A successful perigee-firing performed at ISTRAC, ISRO has injected the spacecraft into the translunar orbit,” ISRO tweeted.
The national space agency said that the next stop is the moon and the Lunar-Orbit Insertion (LOI) is planned for August 5.
"Next stop: the moon. As it arrives at the moon, the Lunar-Orbit Insertion (LOI) is planned for August 5, 2023,” it added.
An ISRO official said that following the trans-lunar injection (TLI), Chandrayaan-3 has escaped from the Earth orbit and is now moving towards on the path that would take it to the vicinity of the Moon.
In other words, the spacecraft began its journey towards the Moon on Tuesday, after leaving the Earth's orbit following the TLI maneuver, which placed it on 'lunar transfer trajectory'.
ISRO has announced that it would attempt soft landing of the lander on the surface of the moon on August 23.
Earlier, the spacecraft’s orbit was progressively increased five times after the Chandrayaan-3 mission to Moon was launched on July 14.
(With PTI inputs)
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