Chandrayaan-3 leaves Earth's orbit, heads towards Moon: ISRO

The Indian Space Research Organisation on Tuesday injected the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into the translunar orbit.

"Chandrayaan-3 has completed its orbits around the earth and is heading towards the moon,” the national space agency headquartered here said.

"A successful perigee-firing performed at ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network). ISRO has injected the spacecraft into the translunar orbit,” it said.

"Next stop: the moon. As it arrives at the moon, the Lunar-Orbit Insertion (LOI) is planned for August 5, 2023,” it added.

An ISRO official told PTI that following Tuesday’s trans-lunar injection (TLI), the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft escaped from orbiting the earth and is now following a path that would take it to the vicinity of the Moon.

In other words, the spacecraft began its journey towards the Moon on Tuesday, after leaving the Earth's orbit following the TLI maneuver, which placed it on 'lunar transfer trajectory'.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had said it would attempt soft landing of the lander on the lunar surface on August 23.

Earlier, the spacecraft’s orbit was progressively increased five times after the Chandrayaan-3 mission to Moon was launched on July 14.