On Saturday, India’s third lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, successfully entered lunar orbit after traveling nearly 300,000 kilometers in three weeks in deep space, following a precise trajectory meticulously mapped by the Indian Space Research Organization.

 

Over the next 18 days, the probe’s velocity will be gradually reduced, lowering it to a lower orbit of roughly 100 kilometers before making the long-awaited soft landing near the lunar south pole on August 23 at 5.47 p.m.

 

According to an update, the Rs 600 crore spacecraft reached lunar orbit on Saturday after retro-burning at Perilune for 1,835 seconds beginning at 7.12 p.m. “The manoeuvre resulted in an orbit of 164 km x 18074 kms intended,” the ISRO stated, adding that this is the third time in a row that the space agency has successfully inserted its spacecraft into lunar orbit, having previously done it in Martian orbit.

 

Chandrayaan-I and Chandrayaan-II were the prior two events. “This is Chandrayaan-3, MOX and ISTRAC.” “I’m feeling lunar gravity,” it wrote on the social networking platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “Chandrayaan-3 has successfully entered lunar orbit.”