ISRO brings back Chandrayaan-3 Propulsion Module to Earth's orbit
Propulsion Module (PM) of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, which was initially intended for lunar operations, was successfully returned to Earth's orbit by ISRO after exceeding its lunar mission objectives, demonstrating India's ability to not only launch objects to the Moon but also bring them back.
Following the lunar hop by Vikram (lander), this was another accomplishment that shows that ISRO can restart engines on the moon and operate equipment, both of which were not foreseen, the national space agency stated in a release.
«In another unique experiment, like the hop experiment on the Vikram Lander, the Propulsion Module (PM) of Chandrayaan-3 was moved from an orbit around the Moon to an orbit around Earth,» the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) stated in its official release.
The primary objective of the Chandrayaan-3, the country's first successful lunar landing mission, was to demonstrate a soft landing near the lunar south polar region and perform experiments using the instruments onboard the lander 'Vikram' and rover 'Pragyaan'.
The spacecraft was launched on July 14, 2023, on board the LVM3-M4 vehicle from SDSC, SHAR.
On August 23, Vikram Lander made its historic touchdown on the Moon and subsequently, the Pragyan rover was deployed to survey the uncharted lunar south pole.
The scientific instruments in the lander and rover were operated continuously for 1 lunar day as per the defined mission life, the ISRO stated in its release, adding that the mission objectives of Chandrayaan-3 have been completely met.
'With regard to the Propulsion Module, the main objective was to ferry the Lander module from GTO to the final lunar polar circular orbit and separate the Lander.
Subsequent to separation,
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