Chandrayaan-3 awaits sunrise at designated Moon site. When will it land?

The Chandrayaan-3 mission underwent a second and final deboosting operation bringing its Lander Module nearer to Moon, the Isro said on Sunday. The deboosting operation has reduced the orbit of the Lander Module to 25 km x 134 km. The Indian Space Research Organisation said the module would undergo internal checks and await the sunrise at the designated landing site.

“The second and final deboosting (slowing down) operation has successfully reduced the LM orbit to 25 km x 134 km. The module would undergo internal checks and await the sun-rise at the designated landing site," ISRO said in a post on 'X' (formerly Twitter).

When will Chandrayaan-3 attempt landing on Moon?

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. The final deboosting operation means the Chandrayaan module will attempt the soft landing on the south polar region from the current orbit (25 km x 134 km). Isro said the powered descent towards the lunar surface is expected to commence around 5.45pm IST on August 23.

A successful soft landing on the moon will make India the fourth country to achieve the feat after the United States, Russia, and China. After a soft landing, the module is expected to deploy the rover that will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the Moon's surface during the course of its mobility.

Race with Russia's Luna-25

Russia's Luna-25 spacecraft, which launched earlier this month, was expected to descend towards the lunar surface around the same time as the Chandrayaan-3 landing. However, the country's space agency, Roscosmos, reported an “abnormal situation” Saturday on its moon-bound Luna-25 spacecraft.

Roscosmos said the spacecraft ran into unspecified trouble while trying to enter a pre-landing orbit, and that its specialists were analyzing the situation.

“During the operation, an abnormal situation occurred on board the automatic station, which did not allow the maneuver to be performed with the specified parameters,” Roscosmos said in a Telegram post.

Roscosmos did not specify whether the incident will prevent Luna-25 from making a landing.