ISRO Posts Pics Captured By Chandrayaan-3 Weeks Before It Completes Its Journey

Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission, has shared fresh images of the moon, which have been posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) by Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). The combination of images shows Earth as captured by Chandrayaan-3's Lander Image camera as well as a photo of the moon a day after the spacecraft entered the lunar orbit. Chandrayaan-3 successfully entered into the lunar orbit on Saturday (August 5). It was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota on July 14.

It is expected to land on the moon on August 23.

In the fresh images, Isro has marked craters Eddington, Aristarchus and Pythagoras along with Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms), one of the large, dark plains on the lunar surface. Oceanus Procellarum is the largest of the "seas", stretching more than 2,500 km across the moon's north-south axis and covering an area of roughly 4,000,000 square kilometres.

Before it lands on the moon, Chandrayaan-3 will perform multiple de-orbiting manoeuvres to bring it closer to the lunar surface so that lander Vikram can land there.

According to Isro chief S Somanath, a lander propulsion module separation exercise will be taken up after that, soon after lander "deboost", a process that slows down the craft. It will be followed by landing on lunar surface on August 23, he explained.

"If everything fails, if all the sensors fail, nothing works, still it (Vikram) will make a landing. That's how it has been designed - provided that the propulsion system works well," Mr Somanath told news agency PTI.

Chandrayaan-3 will make India the fourth country after the US, China, and Russia to land its spacecraft on the surface of the moon, demonstrating the country's ability for a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface.