Chandrayaan-3 Exits Earth’s Orbit; En Route To Enter The Translunar Orbit: ISRO

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday announced that Chandrayaan-3 has successfully completed its orbits around the Earth and is currently on its way towards the Moon.

"A successful perigee-firing performed at ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network). ISRO has injected the spacecraft into the translunar orbit," it said.

In the next four days, the spacecraft is expected to cover its distance to the moon and begin orbiting around the moon on August 5.

It will gradually descend into lower lunar orbits until it reaches a 100 km-radius circular orbit. The final drop of the lander and rover module on the moon surface will take place from this orbit around August 23.

Chandrayaan-3, which was launched on July 14, is slated to become India's first spacecraft to make a soft landing on the moon. India’s previous attempt, with Chandrayaan-2 in 2019, had failed to make a successful landing.