The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is getting closer to the surface of the moon. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the spacecraft on July 14.
The space agency completed yet another major manoeuvre on Wednesday, August 9. Chandrayaan-3’s orbit altitude was reduced, bringing it closer to the Moon’s surface.
The Chandrayaan-3 lander will make a soft landing on the moon’s south pole on August 23.
The ISRO decided to launch a spacecraft for the moon decades back. As the craft inches closer to the moon, take a look at the timeline of the Chandrayaan missions undertaken by ISRO.
Chronology of ISRO's Chandrayaan missions
August 15, 2003: Chandrayaan programme was announced by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
October 22, 2008: Chandrayaan-1 launched from Sriharikota's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
November 8, 2008: Chandrayaan-1 began a lunar transfer trajectory.
November 14, 2008: Chandrayaan-1's Moon Impact Probe ejected and crashed close to the lunar surface. The existence of water molecules on the moon's surface was confirmed.
August 28, 2009: The Chandrayaan-1 programme ended, according to ISRO.
July 22, 2019: Chandrayaan-2 launched from Sriharikota's Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
August 20, 2019: Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft entered lunar orbit.
September 2, 2019: While in a 100-kilometre lunar polar orbit, the Vikram Lander was detached from the moon. However, when the lander was 2.1 kilometres above the moon's surface, the connection with the ground stations was lost.
July 14, 2023: The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.
A timeline of the Chandrayaan-3 mission:
July 6: ISRO announced that Mission Chandrayaan-3 will take off from the second launch pad at Sriharikota on July 14.
July 7: Tests on the electrical systems of vehicles were successful.
July 11: A complete 24-hour Launch Rehearsal that simulated the whole launch procedure ended.
July 15: At ISTRAC/ISRO in Bengaluru, the first orbit-raising manoeuvre, Earthbound Firing-1, was successfully completed. An orbit of 41,762 km x 173 km was reached by the spacecraft.
July 17: The second orbit-raising manoeuvre of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which successfully finished, put the craft in an orbit with the dimensions 41603 km x 226 km.
July 22: After successfully completing the fourth orbit-raising process, the spacecraft was launched into an orbit of 71351 km by 233 km.
July 25: Another successful orbit-raising manoeuvre was carried out until 1,27,603 km x 236 km.
August 1: Chandrayaan-3 reached a critical milestone when it was sent into a translunar orbit, achieving a 288 km x 3,69,328 km orbit.
August 5: Chandrayaan-3 scored a major triumph when it successfully entered lunar orbit and attained its intended orbital size of 164 km x 18,074 km.
August 6: The orbit of the spacecraft around the moon is lowered to 170 km x 4,313 km.
August 9: The orbit was reduced to 174 km x 1,437 km.
August 14: The orbit was further reduced to 150 km x 177 km.
Scientists at ISRO believe India will attempt a soft landing on the moon's surface on this date, which will position it among select nations that successfully accomplished this feat.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
First Published: Aug 9, 2023 7:14 PM IST
