Marching Towards Moon: Chandrayaan-3 exits Earth's orbit says ISRO

Sriharikota: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday injected the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into the translunar orbit.

“Chandrayaan-3 completes its orbits around the Earth and heads towards the Moon. A successful perigee-firing performed at ISTRAC, ISRO has injected the spacecraft into the translunar orbit," the national space agency said.

"Next stop: The Moon. As it arrives at the Moon, the Lunar-Orbit Insertion (LOI) is planned for August 5, 2023," it added.

An ISRO official said on the following Tuesday after the trans-lunar injection (TLI), the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully departed from its orbit around the Earth and is now on a trajectory that will lead it towards the vicinity of the Moon. Indeed, on Tuesday, the spacecraft initiated its voyage towards the Moon by leaving Earth's orbit following the TLI maneuver, which put it on a 'lunar transfer trajectory'.

ISRO had announced its plan to perform a soft landing of the lander on the lunar surface on August 23.

Prior to this, the spacecraft's orbit was systematically raised in five stages following its launch on July 14 as part of the Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon.

Building upon the achievements of Chandrayaan-2, this mission aims to showcase a range of capabilities, including reaching the Moon's orbit, executing a soft landing on the lunar surface using a lander, and deploying a rover from the lander to conduct surface studies on the Moon.