Indians are looking forward to a historic moment on August 23 as ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 is set to touch down on the lunar south pole at 6.04 pm. To read about live-streaming details of the moon landing, click HERE.
As we wait for the scheduled landing of the spacecraft, here's a timeline of Chandrayaan's journey so far:
July 6: Chandrayaan-3 scheduled to launch on July 14, ISRO reveals.
July 7: Electrical tests completed.
July 11: ISRO conducts a 24-hour rehearsal simulating the entire launch operation.
July 14: Chandrayaan-3 successfully launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, on a LVM3 M4 vehicle at 2.35pm IST and placed in its orbit.
July 15: The first orbit-raising manoeuvre around earth puts Chandrayaan-3 into a 41,762 km x 173 km orbit.
July 17: The second orbit-raising maneouvre takes Chandrayaan-3 into a 41,603 km x 226 km orbit.
July 18: Chandrayaan-3 achieves a 51,400 km x 228 km orbit in the third orbit-raising maneouvre.
July 22: Chandrayaan-3 placed into a 71,351 km x 233 km in the fourth orbit-raising maneouvre.
July 25: Chandrayaan-3 undergoes fifth orbit-raising maneouvre and attains 1,27,609 km x 236 km orbit.
August 1: Chandrayaan-3 injected into the translunar orbit at 288 km x 3,69,328 km as it escapes the earth's sphere of influence and moves closer to the moon.
August 5: Chandrayaan-3 is successfully inserted into the lunar orbit and attains an intended 164 km x 18,074 km orbit.
August 6: Chandrayaan-3's orbit reduced to 170 km x 4,314 km in first lunar-bound maneouvre.
August 9: Chandrayaan-3 achieves 174 km x 1437 km orbit after second maneouvre.
August 14: Chandrayaan-3 attains an orbit of 151 km x 179 km in third maneouvre.
August 16: The lunar bound maneuvres completed after Chandrayaan-3 enters a near-circular 153 km x 163 km orbit.
August 17: Lander module and propulsion module part ways.
August 18: Chandrayaan-3’s completes first de-orbiting and reaches an orbit of 113 km x 157 km.
August 20: Second and final deboosting contracts the lander module’s orbit to 25 km x 134 km.
August 21: Chandrayaan-2 orbiter communicates with Chandrayaan-3 lander module.
August 22: ISRO confident of landing Chandrayaan-3 at the scheduled time.
August 23: Live telecasting begins at 5.20 pm. Chandrayaan-3 set to land on moon at 18.04 pm.
What lies ahead for Vikram lander and Pragyan rover?
Once the lander module touches down on the lunar surface, the Pragyan rover will be deployed from the Vikram lander and it will carry out studies on the moon for one lunar day or 14 Earth days. The Vikram lander, which has three payloads will measure plasma density near the lunar surface, thermal properties of the moon's surface and seismic activities besides delineating the structure of the moon's crust and mantle. The Pragyan rover, which has two payloads, will gather data on the lunar surface and the elemental composition of lunar atmosphere. These data will be sent to the lander.
