One week remains before the South Pole landing attempt for India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission scheduled for August 23. It has just completed its fifth and final maneuver in lunar orbit to approach 153 km x 163 km from the surface of our natural satellite. Previously, he had sent his first Moon images.

Today will take a decisive step with the separation of the Vikram (meaning “value” in Sanskrit) propulsion and landing modules containing the Pragyaan (“wisdom”) rover. Next, the lander will perform two orbit reduction maneuvers: first placing itself in a 100×100 km circular orbit, then closing in on the Moon in a 100×30 km orbit.

Chandrayaan-3 mission:

Today’s successful firing, which was needed at short notice, has put Chandrayaan-3 into the 153 km x 163 km orbit, as intended.

With this, the maneuvers to the moon were completed.

It’s time to prepare as the Propulsion Module and Landing Module… pic.twitter.com/0Iwi8GrgVR

—ISRO (@isro) August 16, 2023

India and Russia to conquer the South Pole of the Moon

If the moon landing is successful, India will then become the fourth country to carry out a soft landing on the Moon, after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China. The Pragyan rover will explore the area around its landing site, gathering images and data to send back to Earth for analysis. The mission is scheduled to last 14 days.

India chose the South Pole of the Moon because of the presence of potentially exploitable water for future missions, as did Russia whose Luna-25 mission launched last week prepares to land on August 21