As of August 4, Chandrayaan-3, India’s third moon mission which was launched on July 14, has covered about two-thirds of the distance to Earth’s only natural satellite.
On August 1, ISRO performed the TransLunar Injection (TLI) to slingshot Chandrayaan-3 towards the moon. In other words, ISRO put the spacecraft, which was orbiting Earth, on course to the moon.
Following TLI, ISRO said that the health of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is normal, and it has entered the moon’s sphere of influence.
On August 5, the Lunar Orbit Injection (LOI) will take place around 7 p.m. IST. At that point, the spacecraft is expected to be embedded in an orbit around the moon. The LOI will be performed from ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru.
After this, there will be four orbit manoeuvres to make the spacecraft enter its final orbit, which will be at a distance of about 100 km from the moon’s surface.
Chandrayaan-3 consists of a lander module (LM), a propulsion module (PM), and a rover.
The PM and LM separation is scheduled to take place on August 17. A series of de-boost manoeuvres is scheduled to take place before the power descent phase for soft-landing on the moon. The lander is expected to touch down on the moon surface on August 23 at 5.47 p.m. IST.
