ISRO: Chandrayaan-3 successfully leaves Earth’s orbit and heads towards Moon

The Indian Space Research Organisation on Monday announced that Chandrayaan-3 has successfully completed its orbit around the Earth and is headed towards the Moon for the next phase of the mission. After a successful perigee firing at ISTRAC, ISRO launched the spacecraft into a translunar orbit. Moon is the next station. The Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) is scheduled for August 5, 2023, when it approaches the moon.

Translunar Orbit Injection is the procedure by which a spacecraft heads for the moon after it has broken free from orbiting the earth and is currently travelling towards the Moon’s vicinity.

Officials confirmed that the lunar injection was conducted between 12 a.m. and 12:30 a.m. on Monday. Also, the Chandrayaan-3 mission has stuck to schedule, and the spacecraft is healthy as of now.ISRO successfully launched Chandrayaan-3 into orbit on July 14 in the late afternoon using Launch Vehicle Mark-3, formerly known as the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-III. India will become the fourth nation to set foot on the moon’s surface and the first to do a soft landing close to the moon’s South Pole when the spacecraft arrives there after a 40-day journey.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon was launched on July 14, 2023. The spacecraft comprises a propulsion module, a lander, and a rover weighing 2148 kg, 1723.89 kg, and 26 kg, respectively. The lander will get separated from the propulsion module once it enters lunar orbit and is scheduled to make a soft landing on August 23 at 5:47 p.m. near the South Pole of the moon. From a height of around 100 kilometres above the moon’s surface, the lander will descend to the surface of the moon.

The ‘Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE)’ payload is located in the propulsion module and is being used to examine the spectrum and Polarimetric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit, according to the mission brochure provided by ISRO ahead of the launch.

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