With its ambitious Chandrayaan-3 mission carrying out a crucial manoeuvre in advance of its landing on the Moon’s surface next Wednesday, India took another step towards realising its lunar ambitions today.
First “deboosting operation” was performed on the Vikram Lander of the spacecraft, which caused it to slow down and enter an elliptical orbit around the Moon.
The Lander Module (LM) is in good health, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and the essential movement was accomplished.
“The Lander Module (LM) health is normal. LM successfully underwent a deboosting operation that reduced its orbit to 113 km x 157 km. The second deboosting operation is scheduled for August 20, 2023, around 0200 Hrs. IST,” the ISRO said on X, formerly Twitter.
In the event that India makes a successful landing on the moon, it will be the fourth nation to do it.
Videos taken by Chandrayaan 3’s Vikram Lander were released by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday. The Lander Position Detection Camera (LPDC), which was connected to the propulsion module on August 15, captured one of the movies that clearly shows the Moon’s craters. Another film shows Earth, albeit in a scaled-down form, and was shot by the Lander Imager (LI) Camera-1.
