Chandrayaan-3 update: Isro eyes the most critical phase for Indian mission

Chandrayaan-3, is successfully progressing towards its goal of landing on the Moon, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

The spacecraft, launched on July 14, 2023, is currently in an elliptical orbit around the moon, with a series of maneuvers planned to place it in a 100 km circular orbit in the coming days.

Isro Chairman S Somanath expressed confidence in the mission's progress, stating that the most critical phase will be the orbit determination process.

This involves accurately estimating the position of the Vikram lander from Earth, a task that has been executed flawlessly so far.

"The orbit changes are happening as planned. There is no deviation. So, it shows excellent results and we are hoping that all will be fine," Somanath said.

The Vikram lander, named after the father of the Indian space program, Vikram Sarabhai, is expected to descend on the moon on August 23, 2023.

If successful, this mission will make India the fourth country in history to achieve a lunar landing, following the U.S., the former Soviet Union, and China.

Somanath also highlighted how the experience from the partially successful Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019 has been instrumental in the current mission. "We went through in great detail on what possibly went wrong. We re-constructed the scenario and made a lot of modifications to Chandrayaan-3," he told PTI.

These modifications include using images from the Chandrayaan-2 mission for better positioning and increasing the landing area measurements for Chandrayaan-3.

Isro has also implemented extensive testing programs to validate these improvements and handle potential contingencies and failures.

Chandrayaan-3's success will not only mark a significant milestone for India's space exploration efforts but also contribute valuable data for global lunar science and future exploration planning.