'Welcome, buddy': Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter welcomes Ch-3 Lander Module, 2-way communication established

Chennai: In a significant milestone, Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter on Monday formally welcomed the Lander Module (LM) of Chandryaan-3, which will make a soft landing on the moon on August 23 to explore the South Polar Region.

The two way communication between two has been established, ISRO said.

In post of "X", ISRO said "Chandrayaan-3 Mission: ‘Welcome, buddy!’ Ch-2 orbiter formally welcomed Ch-3 LM."

"Two-way communication between the two is established. "Mission Operations Complex (MOX) has now more routes to reach the LM", it said.

Chandrayaan-2, India's second Lunar mission, was launched in July 2019 and the Lander crashlanded due to a technical glitch very close to the landing site in September 2019, making the mission 99.99 per cent success.

ISRO said in a monumental event in space exploration, Chandrayaan-3 will land in moon at 1804 hrs on August 23.

The Space Agency performed the second and final deboosting operation of LM on Sunday early morning.

Upon landing, Rover will be ejected out from the LM for conducting insitu experiments on the Lunar region.

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

After this manoeuvre, the Chandryaan-3 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.

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. (Inputs from UNI)