Chandrayaan-3: Journey to the Moon

Chandrayaan-3 was launched by ISRO's LVM3 rocket on 14 July 2023 into an elliptical orbit around Earth. A series of engine burns raised its orbit step by step, then a trans-lunar injection burn on 1 August sent it towards the Moon. It braked into lunar orbit on 5 August, lowered its orbit, and the Vikram lander touched down on 23 August 2023.

Orbit raising means firing a spacecraft's engine to make its orbit bigger. Burning at the orbit's closest point (perigee) pushes the farthest point (apogee) further out. Chandrayaan-3 used several such burns to stretch its Earth orbit until it reached the Moon's distance.

A direct flight to the Moon takes about three days but needs a far more powerful rocket. ISRO's route used the spacecraft's own engine for several gradual orbit-raising burns, which takes weeks but saves a great deal of fuel and cost.

Trans-lunar injection (TLI) is the engine burn that puts a spacecraft on a path to the Moon. For Chandrayaan-3 it took place on 1 August 2023, stretching its orbit so its far end reached the Moon, where the Moon's gravity could take over.

The Vikram lander touched down at about 69.37° S, 32.32° E, near the Moon's south pole, on 23 August 2023. The landing site is named the Shiv Shakti point. India became the fourth country to soft-land on the Moon and the first near its south pole.

The Pragyan rover rolled out of the Vikram lander and travelled about 100 metres on the surface. Its instruments confirmed sulphur in the lunar soil near the south pole and measured other elements, while Vikram's instruments measured the temperature of the soil and moonquakes.