Rama Krishna Sangem
It’s a moment of jubilation for scientists at ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) on August 5, Saturday evening. As the entire world waited in anxiety, ISRO’s Chandrayaan 3 successfully left the Earth gravitational pull and entered Moon’s gravity, as planned earlier. This is a first milestone of victory for ISRO which aspires to put India in the coveted club of three nations – the US, China and then Soviet Union – whose rovers landed on Moon.
“India’s ambitious third moon mission, Chandrayaan-3 was successfully inserted into the lunar orbit on Saturday,” the ISRO said. The required maneuver was done from an ISRO facility here, the city-headquartered space agency said in a tweet. “Chandrayaan-3 has been successfully inserted into the lunar orbit.
A retro-burning at the Perilune was commanded from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), ISTRAC ( ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network ) , Bengaluru,” the agency said in a tweet. Perilune is the spacecraft’s closest point to the moon.
Next big operation on Aug 6
The next operation – reduction of orbit– will be done at 11 PM on Sunday, ISRO added. ISRO also shared a message from the satellite to its centres, which read,”MOX, ISTRAC, this is Chandrayaan-3. I am feeling lunar gravity.” Over five moves in the three weeks since the launch on July 14, ISRO has been lifting the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft into orbits farther and farther away from the Earth.
Then, on August 1 in a key maneuver — a slingshot move — the craft was sent successfully towards the Moon from Earth’s orbit. Following this trans-lunar injection, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft escaped from orbiting the Earth and began following a path that would take it to the vicinity of the moon.
ISRO planned to land its rover on Moon on August 23 or 24, making a big history for 73 year old Independent India. The rover will land on the hitherto unexplored southern pole of Moon and collect scientific material for about 15 days – when the natural satellite’s surface will get Sun rays.
