Chandrayaan-3 update: Vikram Lander completes final deboosting operation; all eyes on landing now

Chandrayaan-3 update: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday (August 20) announced that the Vikram Lander Module of Chandrayaan-3 has successfully completed its second and final deboosting, reducing the Lander Module orbit to 25km x 134km in the wee hours of Sunday.

“The second and final deboosting operation has successfully reduced the LM orbit to 25 km x 134 km. The module would undergo internal checks and await the sun-rise at the designated landing site. The powered descent is expected to commence on August 23, 2023, around 1745 Hrs. IST," said ISRO.

On August 18, Chandrayaan-3’s  Vikram Lander successfully completed its first deboosting operation at 4 pm, reducing the module’s orbit to 113 km x 157 km. The space agency said, “The Lander Module (LM) health is normal. LM successfully underwent a deboosting operation that reduced its orbit to 113 km x 157 km. The second deboosting operation is scheduled for August 20, 2023, around 0200 Hrs," ISRO posted on X (formerly Twitter).

Deboosting is slowing down to position itself in an orbit where the orbit's closest point to the Moon (Perilune) is 30 km, and the farthest point (the Apolune) is 100 km.

Chandrayaan-3 is India’s third mission in its lunar exploration series. The mission was successfully launched on July 14 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. And currently, the Chandrayaan-3 mission is in the most critical phase, as there are only a few days left before the lander module will make an attempt to do a soft landing on the south polar region of the Moon on August 23. 

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

ISRO also shared a video of the view from the Lander Imager (LI) Camera-1 on the microblogging site X (formerly known as Twitter). The shared video shows the view captured by the LI camera right after the Lander Module separated from the Main Module.

Also watch: Historic Lunar missions before Chandrayaan-3 and their significance in space exploration

Also watch: Meet the man behind Chandrayaan-3: ISRO Chairman S. Somanath; India’s Moon Mission updates