New Delhi: India is eagerly waiting for Chandrayaan-3 to make its historic touchdown on the Moon’s south pole on Wednesday evening. With a successful landing, India will join the elite club of three countries Russia, the US, and China, that have succeded in landing their spacecraft on the moon.
The lander (Vikram), which carries a rover (Pragyan), is expected to touch down near the south polar region around 6.04 Indian Standard Time (IST), marking a historic moment for India as it will become the first country to softly land a spacecraft on the lunar south pole.
The objectives of Chandrayaan-3 are to demonstrate soft landing and roving on the lunar surface, conduct in-situ experiments on the lunar soil and water, and demonstrate technologies that can be used for future crewed missions to the Moon and Mars.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will start the live-streaming event for Chandrayaan-3's landing at 5:20 pm IST. People can watch the live stream online on the official YouTube channel of ISRO, on the space agency's official website, or official Facebook account, or on DD National.
Chandrayaan 3: A Timeline Of India's Third Moon Mission
July 14 – ISRO launches Chandrayaan-3 into orbit for 14 Earth days mission on the Moon
July 14-July 31 – Four orbit-raising manoeuvres performed
August 1 – Chandrayaan is inserted into the translunar orbit
August 5 – Chandrayaan successfully enters lunar orbit
August 6 - 16 – Four orbit-reduction manoeuvres were carried out to reach closer to Moon
August 17 – Lander module successfully separated from the propulsion module
August 18 – ISRO performs 'deboosting' to reduce Chandrayaan's orbit to 113 x 157 km
August 20 – ISRO carries out final 'deboosting' to reduce further Chandrayaan's orbit to 25 X 134 km
August 23 – Countdown begins for soft landing of Chandrayaan 3, which is set to touchdown on Moon at 6.04 pm
The phases of descent are initial preparation, velocity reduction, orientation change, attitude hold phase, fine braking, final descent, and touchdown, a former ISRO scientist told ABP Live.
Once the Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander and Pragyan rover successfully touch down on the Moon, images captured by the cameras on board the spacecraft will be shared with Earth.