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Chandrayaan 3: ISRO shares pics from operations room, 'all set to initiate landing’
According to officials from ISRO, the last 15 to 20 minutes will be most crucial for the mission.
Ahead of the historic scheduled soft landing of Chandrayaan 3 on the Moon, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday said that they are all set to initiate the Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS). The LM comprising the lander (Vikram) and the rover (Pragyan) is scheduled to make a touchdown near the south polar region of the Moon at 6:04 pm today. (CHECK LIVE UPDATES HERE)
The space agency also shared pictures from its busy operation room.
“Awaiting the arrival of Lander Module (LM) at the designated point, around 17:44 Hrs. IST. Upon receiving the ALS command, the LM activates the throttleable engines for powered descent,” ISRO wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Also read: What if Chandrayaan 3 misses soft landing today? 3 scenarios explained
It added, “The mission operations team will keep confirming the sequential execution of commands.”
According to officials from ISRO, the last 15 to 20 minutes will be most crucial for the mission. At an altitude of around 30 km, the lander would enter the powered braking phase of the Moon and then begin using its four thruster engines by "retro firing" them to reach the surface of the moon. On reaching an altitude of around 6.8 km, only two engines will be used, while the two others will be shut down, aimed at giving the reverse thrust to the lander as it descends further.
What is the possibility of the mission being postponed?
According to a senior ISRO scientist, the national space agency will go ahead with the landing only if conditions on the day are “favourable”; or else a fresh attempt will be made on August 27. The officials will take a decision two hours before the landing.
Also read: Chandrayaan 3's soft landing on Moon at 6.04pm after crucial horizontal to vertical turn
“Two hours before Chandrayaan-3 lands on the Moon, we will take a decision on whether or not it will be appropriate to land it at that time based on the health of the lander module and the conditions on the Moon. In case, if any factor appears to be not favourable, then we will land the module on the Moon on August 27,” Nilesh M Desai, Director, Space Applications Centre, ISRO, told news agency ANI.
Meanwhile, ISRO will be live telecasting the landing operations from 5:27 pm today evening. It can be viewed on ISRO's website (https://isro.gov.in), ISRO's official YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/watch?v=DLA_64yz8Ss), and ISRO's official Facebook channel (https://facebook.com/ISRO).
