India's Chandrayaan-3 moon rover enters lunar orbit, snaps stunning photos (video)

[Judi Lynn]

By Andrew Jones published about 6 hours ago
The spacecraft will attempt a historic lunar landing on Aug. 23.

- video at link -

India's Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander has returned its first images from the moon after entering orbit around our nearest neighbor.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released the images on Sunday (Aug. 6), showing that the spacecraft had reached its destination ahead of a lunar landing attempt expected on Aug. 23.

Chandrayaan-3 launched on July 14, heading into an initial highly elliptical Earth orbit. It then gradually raised its orbit before making a burn on July 31 that set it on course for the moon. The spacecraft successfully entered orbit around our natural satellite on Saturday (Aug. 5), according to ISRO.



httIndia's Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft snapped this photo while entering orbit around the moon on Aug. 5, 2023. (Image credit: ISRO)

The spacecraft will conduct further engine burns to bring it into a circular track about 60 miles (100 kilometers) above the surface of the moon a week ahead of the expected landing attempt.

More:
https://www.space.com/india-chandrayaan-3-moon-orbit-photos

[Duppers]

1. Amazing!

Thank you, Judi.

Sending this to my future daughter-in-law, who is from Lucknow.