Chandrayaan-3 to Land at 6:04pm on Aug 23; Russia's Luna-25 Crashes on Moon, Mission Failed

Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Chandrayaan-3 a> successfully underwent a second deboosting operation in the wee hours of Sunday. With this, the mission’s last step is the powered descent towards the south pole of the moon.

India’s third mission in its lunar exploration series was launched successfully on July 14 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The spacecraft — entered the lunar orbit on August 5 — is scheduled to make a soft landing on the moon’s surface on August 23.

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– ISRO Announces Chandrayaan-3’s Landing Time

The Indian Space Research Organisation has announced that Chandrayaan-3 is set to make its landing on the moon’s surface at 6:04 pm on August 23.

The space agency posted on X, announcing the time of the landing and thanking the people for their wishes and positivity.

– Russia’s Moon Mission Fails As Luna-25 Crashes

According to Russian news agency TASS, the country’s lunar mission Luna-25 has failed as the spacecraft collided with the moon’s surface. The news agency posted on X, saying that reports from Russia’s space agency Roscosmos informed that communication with the automatic station “Luna-25” was interrupted.

“According to its preliminary calculations, the station switched to an off-design orbit and collided with the surface of the Moon,” the post said.

– Confident of Mission’s Success, But Last 30 Km Before Landing Still Daunting, Says Senior Astronomer

Professor Annapurni Subramanian, senior astronomer and director of Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru, said she is confident of the success of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3.

“We will reach there without much of an issue. But it is the last 30 km that will be quite crucial. The parameters of space are vast and involve complexities. There will always be a small non-zero probability that it can go wrong and we cannot eliminate that. But I’m quite certain that we will make it this time. A huge amount of preparation has gone into it and Chandrayaan-3 has the highest probability of being successful,” Subramanian said.

– Lander Module Undergoes Second & Final Deboosting Operation

The Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 successfully underwent the second and final deboosting operation on Sunday. This has now the reduced the LM orbit to 25 km x 134 km.

Following this, ISRO posted on the microblogging site X, “The module would undergo internal checks and await the sun-rise at the designated landing site.”

Chandrayaan-3 is scheduled to begin its powered descent at 5:45 pm on August 23.

– India’s Chandrayaan-3 vs Russia’s Luna-25; Latter Informs Technical Glitch 

Russia’s Luna-25, which was launched on August 10 is scheduled to land on August 21, while India’s third lunar mission is scheduled to make its soft landing on the moon’s south pole on August 23, two days after Russia’s spacecraft. Luna-25 joined Chandrayaan-3 in the lunar orbit on August 16.

Russian Moon Mission Luna-25 on Saturday reported a technical glitch ahead of its pre-moon landing phase, Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

“During the operation, an emergency situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the carrying out of the manoeuvre within the specified conditions,” Roscosmos said in a statement.

The spacecraft is scheduled to land on the south pole of the moon on Monday, racing to land on Earth’s satellite ahead of an Indian spacecraft. The lunar south pole is of particular interest to scientists, who believe the permanently shadowed polar craters may contain water.

The frozen water in the rocks could be transformed by future explorers into air and rocket fuel. The Russian spacecraft produced its first results on Saturday. The agency reported that the preliminary data obtained contained information about the chemical elements of the lunar soil and that its equipment had registered a micrometeorite impact.

– Lander Module First Deboosting Successful, LM Health Normal

The Vikram Lander of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 successfully underwent its first deboosting operation at 4 pm on August 18, reducing the module’s orbit to 113 km x 157 km.

ISRO posted on X, formerly Twitter — following the deboosting — the health of the Lander was normal.

– ISRO Shares View Captured by the Lander Imager (LI) Camera-1

The Indian Space Research Organisation shared a video of the view from the Lander Imager (LI) Camera-1 on the microblogging site X.

The view was captured by the LI camera right after the Lander Module separated from the Main Module.

The space agency also shared images of the moon captured by the Lander Position Detection Camera (LPDC) on August 15.

– Vikram Lander Separates From Propulsion Module

Another box was ticked off in the milestones list of Chandrayaan-3 as the Lander Module — carrying the rover inside — successfully separated from the Propulsion Module on August 17.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) posted on X, “Thanks for the ride, mate! said the Lander Module (LM). LM is successfully separated from the Propulsion Module (PM). LM is set to descend to a slightly lower orbit upon a deboosting planned for tomorrow around 1600 Hrs IST.”

– Final Manoeuver of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 Completed

India’s third mission to moon, Chandrayaan-3 successfully completed its fifth and final manoeuver on August 16. This took the mission further closer to its completion, scheduled for August 23.

Following the last manoeuver, the mission geared up for the separation of Lander Module from the Main Module.

Posting on X, ISRO said, “Today’s successful firing, needed for a short duration, has put Chandrayaan-3 into an orbit of 153 km x 163 km, as intended. With this, the lunar-bound manoeuvres are completed. It’s time for preparations as the Propulsion Module and the Lander Module gear up for their separate journeys.”

(with PTI inputs)

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