On 23rd August, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) achieved one of the most important milestones in Indian Space history as Chandrayaan-3 landed successfully on the moon’s surface. At 18:04 hours, the spacecraft landed successfully on the moon, and the success was celebrated with cheers and applause at the ground station.
The official X handle of ISRO posted the success of Chandrayaan-3’s landing on the Moon. “Chandrayaan-3 Mission: ‘India, I reached my destination and you too,” it tweeted.
Chandrayaan-3 Mission:
— ISRO (@isro) August 23, 2023
'India🇮🇳,
I reached my destination
and you too!'
: Chandrayaan-3
Chandrayaan-3 has successfully
soft-landed on the moon 🌖!.
Congratulations, India🇮🇳!#Chandrayaan_3#Ch3
Scientists at the ISRO headquarters celebrated the soft landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the Moon.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined from South Africa and congratulated ISRO and Indians on the remarkable achievement, lauding the hardworking ISRO scientists for achieving the magnificent feat. Modi further added that Chandrayaan-3’s successful land was not just a big accomplishment for India but for the entire humanity.
Historic day for India's space sector. Congratulations to @isro for the remarkable success of Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission. https://t.co/F1UrgJklfp
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 23, 2023
Chronology of Chandrayaan-3 journey
Chandrayaan-3 was launched successfully by ISRO’s LVM3 M4 into the orbit vehicle on 14 July 2023.
On 15th July, the spacecraft performed its first orbit-raising manoeuvre at IS TRAC/ISRO, Bengaluru and reached 41762 km x 173 km orbit.
On 17th July, the spacecraft performed a second orbit-raising manoeuvre. The spacecraft was in 41603 km x 226 km orbit.
On 22nd July, it performed another orbit-raising manoeuvre.
On 1st August, the spacecraft was inserted into the translunar orbit, which was achieved at 288 km x 369328 km.
On 5th August, it was successfully inserted into the lunar orbit and it achieved 164 km x 18074 km orbit, as intended.
On 6th August, the spacecraft reached in 170 km x 4313 km orbit around the moon as LBN#2 was completed.
Further, on 9th August, the orbit was reduced to 174 km x 1437 km following a manoeuvre performed on that day.
On 14th August, the mission reached the orbit circularisation phase.
On 16th August, The spacecraft was in an orbit of 153 km x 163 km after the firing.
On 17th August, the Lander Module was successfully separated from the Propulsion Module.
On 19th August, the Lander Module reached 113 km x 157 km orbit around the moon.
On 20th August, the Lander Module is in a 25 km x 134 km orbit.
On 23rd August, powered descent commenced at 5:45 PM.
About Chandrayaan-3 mission
Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-up mission to Chandrayaan-2. It aims to showcase the ability to safely land and travel on the moon’s surface. It includes a Lander module and Rover configuration and is set to launch from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota, via LVM3. The Propulsion module will transport the Lander and Rover to a 100 km lunar orbit, with a scientific payload to study Earth’s spectral and Polari metric measurements through the Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) instrument. The mission goals are to demonstrate the safe and gentle landing of the Lander, successful Rover exploration, and conduct scientific experiments in situ.
The Lander incorporates advanced technologies such as altimeters, velocimeters, inertial measurement, propulsion system, navigation, guidance, control, hazard detection and avoidance, and landing leg mechanism. Successful tests have been conducted on Earth to demonstrate the effectiveness of these advanced technologies.
