Chandrayaan 3 get closer to moon, landing planned on August 23

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The second orbital descent of Chandrayaan 3 has been successful. With this, the probe has reached an elliptical orbit that is 174 km close to the moon and 1437 km away.

The ISTRAC centre in Bangalore lowered the orbit at 1 pm yesterday by burning the fuel in the propulsion module and running the LAM engines.

The probe was brought into the moon's orbit on Sunday. On Monday, the orbiter was placed at a distance of 14,000 km from the Moon and 4,313 km at its closest. From there it was lowered again yesterday. It will be lowered again on August 14th at 11.30 am. Chandrayaan 3 is expected to come within 100 km of the moon on the 16th.

On the 17th, the lander module will separate from the propulsion module. It will then try to land on the moon after bringing the lander module within 30 km of the moon. The probe will land on the moon on August 23rd.