India News reports that Chandrayaan-3 will conduct separate de-boost operations for Vikram and Pragyan.

★The landing module is set to descend to a slightly lower orbit upon a de-boosting planned for tomorrow (August 18) at 4pm, according to Isro.

★The separation manoeuvre was carried out by Isro a day after it guided the spacecraft — an integrated module with the propulsion module sitting on top of the landing module — into ‘an orbit of 153km x 163km, as intended’.

★During Chandrayaan-2, the spacecraft was put into a 119km x 127km orbit, which was only off marginally from the initial plans but as intended going by estimations made closer to the last lunar manoeuvre.

★For Chandrayaan-3, the plan was to achieve a circular orbit, with an altitude of either 100km or 150km. The orbit achieved on Wednesday, Isro reiterated, “was as intended”.

★Now, a series of de-boost manoeuvres will eventually put Vikram in an orbit where the Perilune (closest point to Moon) is 30km and Apolune (farthest point from Moon) is 100km. The final orbit achieved could vary marginally as was the case with Chandrayaan-2.

★Once the 30km x 100km orbit has been achieved, the most critical part of the landing, the process of reducing the velocity of the lander from 30km height to the final landing, will begin.

★Isro will also have to overcome the phase where the spacecraft’s horizontal orientation needs to change to a vertical one, before Vikram makes the final descent on August 23.

★Chandrayaan-3 was launched 34 days ago on July 14. It completed five Earth-bound manoeuvres and a trans-lunar injection before being put in an elliptical orbit around the Moon on August 5.

★Isro shared the first images of the Moon captured by Chandrayaan-3.

★The mission is progressing as planned and reaching each milestone successfully. The final descent and landing on the Moon is scheduled for August 23.