With 5th orbit-raising manoeuvre, Chandrayaan-3 moves farther from Earth | India News

NEW DELHI: India’s moon-bound spacecraft, Chandrayaan-3, travelled further towards its destination with Isro on Tuesday raising its orbit for the fifth time.

“The orbit-raising manoeuvre (Earth-bound perigee firing) is performed successfully from ISTRAC/ISRO, Bengaluru. The spacecraft is expected to attain an orbit of 1,27,609 km x 236 km. The achieved orbit will be confirmed after the observations,” Isro tweeted. “The next firing, the TransLunar Injection (TLI), is planned for August 1, 2023, between 12 midnight and 1 am IST,” the agency said.
On Tuesday, TOI had reported that Isro would make the fifth and final Earth-bound manoeuvre to raise its orbit in order to take the spacecraft away from the Earth.

The Chandrayaan-3, which is equipped with a lander, a rover, and a propulsion module and weighs around 3,900 kg, will begin its journey towards the Moon on August 1, after leaving the Earth’s orbit following the TLI manoeuvre, which will place it on “lunar transfer trajectory”. Covering a distance of over 300,000 km, it will then reach the Moon’s orbit and will finally attempt a soft-landing. The lander will get separated from the propulsion module a couple of days after it enters lunar orbit and is expected to make a soft-landing near the South Pole of the moon at 5.47 pm on August 23.
Subsequent to the soft landing, the six-wheeled rover will roll out and carry out experiments on the lunar surface for a period of one lunar day which is equal to 14 Earth Days.