ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 set to land on the moon on August 23
ISRO announced that Chandrayaan-3 is ready to land on the Moon on August 23, 2023 at around 18:04 hrs. Meanwhile, Chandrayaan-3’s lander module reached the required lunar orbit to begin the soft landing process on the Moon’s south pole.
The second de-orbiting maneuver for the Lander Module of Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft was performed successfully today early this morning. The Lander Module was placed in a 25 by 134 kms orbit around the Moon. A tweet by ISRO says that the health of the Lander Module Vikram is normal.
The tweet adds that the Lander module has reached the required orbit to commence its dencent towards the surface of the Moon. The momentous occasion when the lander that carries a rover within it will soft land on Moon near the south pole is fixed on August 23 between 1730 and 1830 HRS. A successful Moon landing will make India the fourth country to have achieved this feat.
The second and final deboosting of its Vikram Lander done today was a critical deboosting manoeuvre, another significant step towards its soft landing on the lunar surface. The Vikram lander will be reoriented to 90 degrees, a position suited for safe landing.
The lander’s thrusters will provide controlled propulsion until the touchdown is achieved. A retired scientist of ISRO and science writer Dr. B R Guruprasad has spoken exclusively to Akashvani news on the challenges involved in accomplishing the task of soft landing Vikram lander on the surface of the Moon.
Vikram Lander has the most difficult task of landing in the South Pole where no one has landed till now. Once achieved this will put the Indian space programme on a higher pedestal among the comity of nations.
