Chandryaaan-3 third orbit reduction maneuver on Monday

Chennai: Having moved even closer to the moon with the second orbit reduction, the third orbit reduction operation will be performed on India's third Lunar Mission Chandrayaan-3 on Monday.

The third orbit reduction maneuver will be carried between 1130 hrs and 1230 hrs on Monday, ISRO said.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had on August 9 afternoon successfully performed the second crucial manoeuvre to further reduce the Orbit of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft and took it even closer to the moon's surface.

After the second operation, the orbit of Chandrayaan-3's was reduced to 174 km x 1437 km and was taken further closer to the moon, it said.

After the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was injected into the Lunar Orbit on August 5, it had successfully underwent the first planned Orbit reduction manoeuver late on night of April 6.

The retrofiring of engines has brought the spacecraft closer to the Moon's surface to 170 X 4313 km.

This maneuver was the first in a series of maneuvers planned to gradually reduce Chandrayaan-3's Orbit and position it over the Lunar poles.

The Lunar bound orbit maneuver was performed between 2230 hrs and 2330 hrs last Sunday night.

"As the mission progresses, a series of maneuvers have been planned to gradually reduce Chandrayaan-3's orbit and position it over the lunar poles", ISRO said.

After some maneuvers, the propulsion module will separate from the lander while in orbit. Following that, a series of complex braking maneuvers will be executed to facilitate a soft landing in the hitherto unexplored South Polar region of the Moon on August 23.

The Space Agency said the health of Chandrayaan-3 is normal.

"Throughout the mission, the health of the spacecraft is being continuously monitored from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX) at ISRO Telemetry, Tracking, and Command Network (ISTRAC), the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) antenna at Byalalu, near Bengaluru, with the support from European Space Agency (ESA) and JPL Deep space antenna. (UNI)