Second manoeuvre for Chandrayaan – 3 spacecraft completed
Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation successfully performed the second move around to push Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft’s altitude at the closest point to Earth (perigee) in its current elliptical orbit on July 16.
Although, Sunday’s manoeuvre was minor compared to the one carried out on July 15, it was still crucial. The onboard thrusters were fired for about 42 seconds after which the perigee of Chandrayaan-3 is now around 220km.
ISRO, on July 14, successfully launched the third edition of its lunar exploration program from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, aimed at making a soft landing on the unexplored south pole of Chandrama that would help India achieve a rare feat.
Chandrayaan-3’s Project director P Veeramuthuvel had said on Friday that ISRO would be closely monitoring and controlling the spacecraft from ISTRAC.
“Many critical events are lined up, starting from Prithvi -bound manoeuvres, insertion into lunar orbit and separation of lander, a set of de-boost manoeuvres, and finally the power descent phase for a soft landing (on the lunar surface),” Veeramuthuvel said.
Mission is aimed at making a soft landing on the unexplored south pole of Chandrama that would help India achieve a rare feat.
