First de-boosting operation of Chandrayaan-3 successfully conducted: ISRO
The next de-boosting operation will be carried out on August 20, before the landing scheduled for August 23 between 5:30pm and 6pm
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday successfully conducted its first de-boosting manoeuvre to reduce the velocity of the spacecraft so that it can make a soft landing on the surface of the moon.

The development comes a day after the lander module (LM) of Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission, successfully separated from the propulsion module.
“Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The Lander Module (LM) health is normal. LM successfully underwent a deboosting operation that reduced its orbit to 113 km x 157 km. The second deboosting operation is scheduled for August 20, 2023, around 0200 IST,” ISRO posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The next de-boosting operation will be carried out on August 20, before the landing scheduled for August 23 between 5:30pm and 6pm.
Also Read: Propulsion module successfully separated from Chandrayaan-3’s lander: ISRO
A follow-up mission to the 2019 Chandrayaan-2, the latest programme aims to achieve three objectives, to demonstrate safe and soft landing on the moon surface, which could not be achieved during Chandrayaan-2, to demonstrate rover abilities on the moon surface and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.
Senior scientists from the department of space explained that Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous lander module (LM), propulsion module (PM) and a rover, with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for interplanetary missions.
The lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover, which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility.
The space agency explained that after the lander module is separated from the propulsion module, the latter will continue its journey along the lunar orbit for at least six months. The propulsion module has ‘Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE)’ payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of earth from the lunar orbit.
In simpler terms, the propulsion module will perform a spectroscopic study of the earth’s atmosphere and measure the variations in polarisation from the clouds on earth, to accumulate signatures of exoplanets that would qualify for our habitability.
Meanwhile, on the landing front, the space agency will be conducting a de-boosting manoeuvre on August 18 before the spacecraft attempts to land on the moon’s surface on August 23.
