Chandrayaan-3 lander closer to Moon after deboosting op; ISRO releases new visuals

A day after the lander module (LM) of Chandrayaan-3 was separated from its propulsion module (PM), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully placed the LM on a lower orbit. The deboosting operation, done at around 4 pm on Friday, lowered the LM to an orbit of 113 km x 157 km.

The space agency said the health of the module was normal. The second deboosting operation is scheduled for August 20, at around 2 am. The LM comprising the lander, Vikram, and the rover, Pragyan, underwent its scheduled separation from the PM on Thursday.

ISRO, through the deboosting operations, will be attempting to achieve a 30 km x 100 km orbit (where the orbit’s closest point to the moon is 30 km away and the farthest is 100 km away), from where it plans to commence the final leg of the lander’s descent phase.

Chandrayaan-3 was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14 and is scheduled for a soft-landing on the moon on August 23.

Visuals released

Ahead of the deboosting on Friday, the space agency released images of the moon, as captured by the Lander Position Detection Camera on board

Chandrayaan-3, on August 15, and as seen by the Lander Imager Camera-1, just after the module separation on August 17.