After final deboosting, Chandrayaan-3's LM inches closer to Moon, all set for soft landing

Chennai: Having separated from the Propulsion Module, the Lander Module (LM) in India's third Lunar Mission Chandryaaan-3 is all set for powered descent for a soft landing on the Moon's surface after the ISRO scientists successfully performed the second and final deboosting operation to take it even further closer to the moon.

The second deboosting operation was done at 0200 hrs on Sunday early morning and the LM would await sunrise at the designated landing site and the powered descent will commence on August 23, ISRO sources said.

After this manoeuvre, the spacecraft was now located at about 25 km x 134 km.

In a social media post ISRO in an update on Chandrayaan-3 Mission said 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", ISRO said.

"The powered descent is expected to commence on August 23, 2023, around 1745 Hrs. IST", it said.

This will pave the way for the soft landing on August 23 evening at 5.45 pm to explore the hitherto unexplored South Polar Region of the moon.

From now on, ISRO, after identifying the landing site, will perform precise braking techniques to ensure a safe landing on the moon's surface on Wednesday evening.

Upon landing, the LM will deploy the rover, which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface. Both the lander and the Rover have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface", according to ISRO.

ISRO said the first deboosting to reduce the Orbit was performed after the LM, which got separated from the Propulsion Module (PM) on Thursday, was performed on Friday and stood at 113 km x 157 km.

The health of the LM is normal. (UNI)