India has put the Chandrayaan-3 unmanned space mission into orbit of the Moon, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said Saturday.
"Chandrayaan-3 has been successfully inserted into the lunar orbit. A retro-burning at the Perilune was commanded from the Mission Operations Complex (MOX), ISTRAC, Bengaluru," the ISRO said on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Chandrayaan-3 consists of a lander, a propulsion module and a lunar rover. The separation of the lander is scheduled for August 17, and the landing on the Moon is planned at 5:47 p.m. India Standard Time on August 23.
A rocket carrying Chandrayaan-3 was successfully launched from a pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Center on July 14. The mission successfully completed its maneuvers on Earth's orbit and went to the Moon on August 1, the ISRO said.
The launch of the Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission was originally scheduled for 2020 but was later postponed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic and reforms in the Indian space sector.
The previous spacecraft, Chandrayaan-2 equipped with the Vikram lander, was put into lunar orbit on August 20, 2019. In September, the lander attempted a soft landing on the lunar surface but lost contact with the ground station for yet unknown reasons.