INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
BENGALURU: Isro has further reduced the altitude of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which was in an elliptical orbit around Moon with an
Apolune (farthest point from Moon) of 1,437km before the manoeuvre carried out Monday
"Orbit circularisation phase commences
Precise maneuvre performed today has achieved a near-circular orbit of 150km x 177km
The next operation is planned for August 16, 2023, around 8.30am," Isro said.Under the ambit of Isro System for Safe and Sustainable Space
Operations Management (IS4OM) critical analysis of each of the lunar-bound manoeuvres for orbit lowering are being performed to assess
potential risks of close approaches with the other lunar orbiters before executing the manoeuvres.On August 9, Isro had guided Chandrayaan-3
reduced from 18,074km to 4,313km.Since the launch on July 14, Chandrayaan-3 has completed five Earth-bound manoeuvres between July 15 and
25, which raised its altitude to more than 1.2-lakh-km at Apogee (farthest point from Earth), the trans-lunar injection (TLI) on August 1,
which put it in a path towards Moon at an altitude of nearly 3.6-lakh-km, the lunar orbit insertion (LOI) on August 5 and three manoeuvres
