<p>Thirty-four days after launch, India's third lunar exploration mission entered a key phase on Thursday, after the lander module of Chandrayaan-3 was successfully separated from its propulsion module.</p><p>The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) tweeted after the separation, "Thanks for the ride, mate! said the Lander Module (LM)." The LM is set to descend to a “slightly lower orbit” upon a deboosting that has been planned for Friday at around 4 pm, the space agency said.</p>.India’s Chandrayaan-3 and Russia’s Luna-25: Race to Moon's south pole heats up.<p>Chandrayaan-3 was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14. Friday’s scheduled deboosting operation will be part of a series of manoeuvres through which Isro plans to facilitate a soft-landing on the south polar region of the Moon, on August 23.</p><p>After the separation, the Propulsion Module (PM) will continue its journey on the current orbit for months/years. The PM carries Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE), an experimental payload that would perform a spectroscopic study of the earth’s atmosphere and measure the variations in polarisation from the clouds on earth. The payload, realised at the U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, is designed to accumulate signatures of exoplanets that would qualify for habitability.</p><p>On Wednesday, Isro performed the spacecraft’s final lunar-bound manoeuvre ahead of the lander separation, placing it on an orbit of 153 km x 163 km.</p>
<p>Thirty-four days after launch, India's third lunar exploration mission entered a key phase on Thursday, after the lander module of Chandrayaan-3 was successfully separated from its propulsion module.</p><p>The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) tweeted after the separation, "Thanks for the ride, mate! said the Lander Module (LM)." The LM is set to descend to a “slightly lower orbit” upon a deboosting that has been planned for Friday at around 4 pm, the space agency said.</p>.India’s Chandrayaan-3 and Russia’s Luna-25: Race to Moon's south pole heats up.<p>Chandrayaan-3 was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14. Friday’s scheduled deboosting operation will be part of a series of manoeuvres through which Isro plans to facilitate a soft-landing on the south polar region of the Moon, on August 23.</p><p>After the separation, the Propulsion Module (PM) will continue its journey on the current orbit for months/years. The PM carries Spectro-polarimetry of HAbitable Planet Earth (SHAPE), an experimental payload that would perform a spectroscopic study of the earth’s atmosphere and measure the variations in polarisation from the clouds on earth. The payload, realised at the U R Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru, is designed to accumulate signatures of exoplanets that would qualify for habitability.</p><p>On Wednesday, Isro performed the spacecraft’s final lunar-bound manoeuvre ahead of the lander separation, placing it on an orbit of 153 km x 163 km.</p>