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Isro early on Tuesday completed the critical trans-lunar injection (TLI), a slingshot that has now put Chandrayaan-3 on a five-day journey to Moon. Now, the 2145-kg propulsion module, on top of which sits the landing module comprising Vikram (the lander) and Pragyan (the rover), will travel in a straight path to reach the lunar orbit.

“Chandrayaan-3 completes its orbits around Earth and heads towards Moon.

Successful perigee-firing has injected the spacecraft into the trans-lunar orbit. Next stop: Moon. As it arrives at Moon, Lunar-Orbit Insertion is planned for August 5, 2023,” Isro said.

Once it reaches the initial lunar orbit, expected on August 5, Isro will need to perform a series of manoeuvres to bring Chandrayaan-3 down to the desired 100km circular orbit. Initial estimates suggest that the space agency will perform at least four Moon-bound manoeuvres to achieve the circular orbit, although Isro is yet to officially comment on the matter.

The midnight TLI, which was carried out between 12am and 1am — Isro did not specify the exact timing of the manoeuvre — was planned to fire the onboard engine for 28-31 minutes. However, no information on how long the TLI operation went on for, has been made public yet.

Between the launch on July 14 and Tuesday, Isro had completed five Earth-bound manoeuvres (EBMs), beginning July 15. Four of them were to increase the altitude at the farthest point from Earth (apogee) and one, carried out on July 16, to increase the altitude at the nearest point (perigee).

As was the case with Chandrayaan-2, these manoeuvres were carried out to increase the altitude from the initial elliptical orbit the LVM-3 put the spacecraft on launch day. The first EBM (July 15) put the spacecraft in a 41,762km X 173km orbit, while the spacecraft’s altitude at apogee had breached the 1.2-lakh-km mark at the end of the last EBM on July 25.

As reported earlier by TOI, the TLI was expected to be attempted when Chandrayaan-3 was at perigee — the spacecraft was going around Earth in an elliptical orbit at a velocity ranging between 1km/second (apogee) and 10.3km/second (perigee) — so that maximum velocity is attained and direction can be controlled better.



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