Chennai, July 17 (UNI) The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)

has successfully performed the second Orbit raising manoeuvre of third

Lunar Mission Chandrayaan-3, which was launched from the spaceport of

Sriharikota on Friday.

After the first orbit raising manoeuvre (Earthbound firing-1), was

performed by the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network

(ISTRAC) in Bengaluru, the second orbit-raising manoeuvre (Earth-

bound apogee firing) was performed successfully on Monday.

The spacecraft is now in 41762 km x 173 km orbit.

The next firing is planned for tomorrow between 2 pm and 3 pm.

ISRO said the spacecraft's health is normal.

In a mission update, ISRO said "the second orbit-raising maneuver

(Earth-bound apogee firing) is performed successfully."

"The spacecraft is now in 41603 km x 226 km orbit. The next firing

is planned for tomorrow between 2 and 3 pm IST", ISRO said.

The Space agency will be performing two more firing till July 31

after which the trans lunar insertion is planned on August 1.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was successfully launched by ISRO's

heaviest launch vehicle LVM3-M4 and after a flight duration of about

16 minutes, it was precisely placed in an elliptic parking orbit of

36,500 km x 170 km.

ISRO is planning the technically challenging soft landing of the

Chandryaaan-3 spacecraft in the lunar surface at 5.47 p.m. on

August 23, ISRO Chairman S.Somanath said after the launch at

Sriharikota.

The Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous lander module (LM),

propulsion module (PM), and a rover with the objective of developing

and demonstrating new technologies required for future inter-planetary

missions.

The success of Chandrayaan-3 will make it the surface mission

closest to the lunar south pole to date, a region of the moon that

has been found to be geologically unique and host to spots in

permanent shadow.

A perfect soft landing on the Moon's surface will make India the

fourth country to accomplish this feat, thereby joining a select

group of spacefaring nations.

Only USA, the then Soviet Union and China have achieved this feat.

India too nearly achieved in its maiden attempt when it launched

Chandryaan-2 in July 2019, before the lander crash landed very

close to the landing spot, making the mission about 99.99 per

cent success.

Through Chandrayaan-3 mission, ISRO is crossing new frontiers

by demonstrating soft landing on lunar surface by its lunar module

and demonstrate roving on the lunar terrain.

It is expected to be supportive to ISRO’s future interplanetary

missions.

ISRO said Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2

to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on

the lunar surface.