Chandrayaan 3: What to expect in ‘critical’ last hour of moon mission landing

livemint.com:

Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission aims for a historic soft landing on the Moon's south pole on Wednesday. In case the mission ends successfully, it would mark another milestone for India's space exploration, building on the achievements of Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2, contributing to lunar science and exploration insights. Though the ISRO's mission scientists will be programming the landing a day prior, the last 20 minutes would be critical as it would involve autonomous landing maneuvers.

Informing about Chandrayaan-3 mission, ISRO cited on Tuesday that it is right on schedule. It took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to say “Systems are undergoing regular checks, smooth sailing is continuing." Chandrayaan-3, is all set to make a soft and successful landing on the south polar region of the Moon around 6.04pm today, August 23. The space agency also shared a video of images of the moon captured by the Lander Position Detection Camera (LPDC) from an altitude of about 70 km, the ISRO.

“LPDC images assist the Lander Module in determining its position (latitude and longitude) by matching them against an onboard moon reference map," it said. Meanwhile on Wednesday, it posted, All set to initiate the Automatic Landing Sequence (ALS). Awaiting the arrival of Lander Module (LM) at the designated point Also read: 'Nehru's vision': Chhattisgarh CM credits former PM for Chandrayaan-3 For India, a successful moon landing would mark its emergence as a space power as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government looks to spur investment in private space launches and related satellite-based businesses.