‘Thanks for the ride, mate’: Chandrayaan-3 lander successfully separates from propulsion module

Guwahati, August 17: After 34 days on board the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, the propulsion module and the lander module parted ways on August 17, and have now embarked on their respective journeys. ISRO said that the lander module has successfully separated from the propulsion module.

After the separation, ISRO posted on X: “Thanks for the ride, mate! 👋’ said the Lander Module (LM). LM is successfully separated from the Propulsion Module (PM). LM is set to descend to a slightly lower orbit upon a deboosting planned for tomorrow around 1600 Hrs, IST.”

On Wednesday, the spacecraft carried out the final lunar-bound orbit reduction manoeuvre of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft, a week ahead of its scheduled landing on the south pole of the moon on August 23.

It has been a month and two days since the Indian Space Research Organisation launched the Chandrayaan-3 mission on July 14. The spacecraft was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.

Chandrayaan-3 is the ISRO's follow-up attempt after the Chandrayaan-2 mission faced challenges during its soft landing on the lunar surface in 2019 and was eventually deemed to have failed its core mission objectives.