Chandrayaan-3 Propulsion Module Moved Towards Earth Orbit

The mission’s objective was to do a soft landing near the lunar south polar region…

On Tuesday, 05 December 2023, the Propulsion Module (PM) of Chandrayaan-3 has now moved from an orbit around the Moon to an orbit around Earth, ISRO has said, terming the operation a unique experiment.

The primary objective of the Chandrayaan-3 mission was to demonstrate a soft landing near the lunar south polar region and perform experiments using the instruments on the 'Vikram' lander and the 'Pragyan' rover.

The spacecraft was launched on July 14, 2023, on board the LVM3-M4 vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC-SHAR).

On August 23, the Vikram lander made its historic touchdown on the Moon and subsequently, the Pragyan rover was deployed.

The scientific instruments in the lander and rover were operated continuously for one lunar day as per the defined mission life.

"The mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 have been completely met," the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement.

For the Propulsion Module, the main objective was to ferry the lander module from the Geostationary Transfer Orbit (GTO) to the final lunar polar circular orbit and separate the lander, it said.

After the separation, the Spectro-polarimetry of the Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload in the PM was also operated, the space agency said.