The health of Chandrayaan-3 was “normal” after the scientists performed the first orbit raising manoeuvre of the spacecraft, Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) has said.
Chandrayaan-3 is the successor to Chandrayaan-1 and -2.
The first mission helped confirmed the presence of water on the Moon in 2008 and the second mission in 2019 was only partially successful as while it placed the orbiter around Moon, the lander crashed on the surface of the Moon and was lost.
The Chandrayaan-3 is set to land on the South Pole of the Moon where no spacecraft has landed before.
The Moon's South Pole is a shadowy unexplored region and insights gathered by Chandrayaan-3 during its 15-day-long mission on Moon would be keenly studied by all the space agencies of the world. The Artemis-III mission of the United States, which would take humans to the Moon for the first time in over 50 years, would also land on the South Pole in the next few years.
Ahead of the launch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the Chandrayaan-3 a "remarkable mission" and said it carries the hopes and dreams of the nation. In a series of tweets, he hailed the scientists involved in the project and highlighted the importance of the Chandrayaan programme.
Chandrayaan-3 is now in an orbit, which when closest to Earth is at 173 km and farthest from Earth is at 41,762 km, the space agency said.
"Chandrayaan-3 Mission update: The spacecraft's health is normal. The first orbit raising manoeuvre (Earthbound firing-1) was successfully performed at ISTRAC/ISRO, Bengaluru. Spacecraft is now in 41762kms x 173kms orbit," ISRO said.
ISRO on July 14 successfully launched the third edition of its Moon exploration programme from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, aimed at making a soft landing on the unexplored south pole of the Moon that would make India achieve a rare feat.
Only three countries, the United States, China and Russia, have managed to land on the lunar surface so far.
