The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Monday took to microblogging site ‘X’, formerly known as Twitter to share the status of Chandrayaan. ISRO chairman S Somanath said,“Chandrayaan-3 is functioning very well. All the instruments, systems on board are very healthy and we are able to bring it down very correctly this time, the orbit changes are happening as planned, there is no deviation, so it shows excellent result, and we are hoping that are fine.”
ISRO on Sunday said the GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle, which lifted off successfully with the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, underwent a planned orbit reduction manoeuvre, bringing it closer to the moon.
“The spacecraft successfully underwent a planned orbit reduction manoeuvre. The retrofitting of engines brought it closer to the Moon’s surface, now to 170 km x 4313 km. The next operation to further reduce the orbit is scheduled for August 9, between 13:00 and 14:00 hours IST,” the ISRO tweeted on Sunday.
The space agency said it will carry out the next such operation on August 9.
Meanwhile, the space agency on Sunday put out the first images of the moon as captured by Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission.
“The Moon, as viewed by Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft during Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) on August 5, 2023,” tweeted the Mission’s official Twitter handle.
On Saturday, Chandrayaan-3 had sent a message to ISRO saying ‘I feel the lunar gravity’ after it had entered the lunar orbit.