Chandrayaan-3’s Moon landing date, time announced
India’s Chandrayaan-3 moved closer to the Moon on August 20, after the Lander Module (LM) successfully completed its second and final de-boosting operation.
With this, the lander has reached an orbit where the closest point to the Moon is 25 km and the farthest is 134 km, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) informed on Sunday.
The module will undergo internal checks and wait for sunrise at the designated landing site, ISRO said.
On July 14, India’s third mission to the Moon was successfully launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota. A few weeks after this, on August 5, the lander entered the lunar orbit.
The lander module is set to touch down on the Moon’s surface on August 23, making India the fourth nation after the US, China, and Russia to achieve this feat. ISRO announced the date and time of the historic landing through a tweet, which read, “Chandrayaan-3 is set to land on the Moon on August 23, 2023, around 18:04 Hrs. IST.”
Ahead of the historic day, ISRO, on August 20, shared a tweet, telling how people across the globe can watch Chandrayaan-3 successfully completing its lunar mission.
Through a message on its official site, ISRO informed that the “eagerly anticipated event” will be live broadcast on Wednesday “starting from 17:27 Hrs. IST. The live coverage will be available via multiple platforms, including the ISRO Website, YouTube, ISRO’s Facebook page, and DD National TV channel.”