Chennai, July 31 (Representative) Hours after the successful commercial launchof PSLV-C56 that injected seven Singapore satellites in the orbit thatwas followed by the technology demonstrator of controlled loweringthe orbit of the fourth stage engine of PSLV to have a lower life spanspent in space on Sunday, the ISRO scientists are working on a morechallenging task–slinging the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into the TransLunar Injection (TLI) orbit on the midnight of August 1. After the successful PSLV mission, the scientists are back in action tofurther raise the orbit of India’s third Lunar Mission, to explore the sofar unexplored Lunar south pole that would propel India joint a selectgroup of space faring nations to achieve this historic. The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which was launched from the Second LaunchPad from Sriharikota on July 14, has undergone five orbit raising manouversthus far to take it further closer to the moon.And the August 1 operation is more crucial to ensure that the spacecraftenters the Lunar Orbit. ISRO had successfully performed the fifth Orbit raising maneuver onJuly 25 and the spacecraft attained an orbit of 127609 km x 236 kmand the next firing, the TLI is planned for August 1 between 12midnight and 1 a.m. “The next firing, the TransLunar Injection (TLI), is planned forAugust 1, 2023, between 12 midnight and 1 am IST”, ISRO said.It will be a more challenging task and the scientists at the ISROTelemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru areburning the midnight oil to make the TLI manouver success. From there, it would take another 22 days for the spacecraft tomake a soft landing on the Lunar surface, that would catapultIndia join USA, the then Soviet Union and China to have achievedthis milestone.
The technically challenging soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraftin the lunar surface is planned at 5.47 p.m.on August 23, ISRO ChairmanS.Somanath said after the Launch on July 14. He said the spacecraft will attempt the technically challenging softlanding on the lunar surface on August 23. The injection of Chandrayaan-3 in the orbit marked its journeytowards the Moon that would spread over 42 days traversing morethan 3.80 lakh kms. Mr Somanath said the Chandrayaan-3’s infusion into the lunar orbithas been planned from August 1. The soft landing has been planned at 5.47 pm on August 23, he added.Meanwhile, former ISRO Chairman Dr K.Sivan, who was at the helm during theprevious lunar mission Chanrayaan-2 in July 2019, had said soft landing wasa challenging task and hoped that this time we will land the spacecraftsuccessfully. He said ISRO has taken corrective measures this time after the crash landingof Lander from the spot very close to landing.With the successful launch, the first phase of the Mission is success andwe hope that this time we will successfully land the spacecraft on the lunarsurface. After the July 14 launch, the orbit of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was raisedin a phased manner by firing the onboard motors. The first orbit raising wascarried out on July 15, the second orbit-raising maneuver (Earth-bound apogeefiring) was performed successfully on July 17. The third maneuver (Earth-bound perigee firing) was done the next day and thefourth on July 20 and the fifth on July 25.
The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was successfully launched by ISRO’s heaviest launchvehicle LVM3-M4 from the spaceport of Sriharikota on July 14. After a flight duration of about 16 minutes, it was precisely placed in an elliptic parking orbit of 36,500 km x 170 km. ISRO is planning the technically challenging soft landing of theChandrayaan-3 spacecraft in the lunar surface at 5.47 p.m. on August 23, ISRO Chairman S.Somanath had said after the launchat Sriharikota. The Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous lander module (LM),propulsion module (PM), and a rover with the objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for future inter-planetarymissions. The success of Chandrayaan-3 will make it the surface missionclosest to the lunar south pole to date, a region of the moon thathas been found to be geologically unique and host to spots inpermanent shadow. A perfect soft landing on the Moon’s surface will make India the fourth country to accomplish this feat, thereby joining a selectgroup of spacefaring nations. Only USA, the then Soviet Union and China have achieved this feat.India too nearly achieved in its maiden attempt when it launched Chandrayaan-2 in July 2019, before the lander crash landed veryclose to the landing spot, making the mission about 99.99 percent success. Through the Chandrayaan-3 mission, ISRO is crossing new frontiersby demonstrating soft landing on the lunar surface by its lunar moduleand demonstrate roving on the lunar terrain. It is expected to be supportive to ISRO’s future interplanetary missions.ISRO said Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving onthe lunar surface.