Chennai/IBNS: India Thursday celebrated International Moon Day-2023 by propelling its third Moon Mission Chandrayaan-3--to explore the hitherto unexplored Lunar south pole--a step closer to the moon by raising its orbit for the fourth time.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully performed the fourth Orbit-raising maneuver.

In a tweet on the Chandrayaan-3 Mission update, ISRO said: "India celebrates #InternationalMoonDay 2023 by propelling Chandrayaan-3 a step closer to the Moon."

"The next firing is planned for July 25, 2023, between 2 and 3 pm IST," it said.

Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was launched from Sriharikota on July 14.

After the first orbit-raising maneuver (Earthbound firing-1) was performed by the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in Bengaluru, the second orbit-raising maneuver (Earth-bound apogee firing) was completed successfully on Monday, the third maneuver (Earth-bound perigee firing) on Tuesday and the fourth today.

ISRO has planned the trans-lunar insertion of Chandrayaan-3 for August 1.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was successfully launched by ISRO's heaviest launch vehicle LVM3-M4 and after a flight duration of about 16 minutes, it was precisely placed in an elliptic parking orbit of 36,500 km x 170 km.

ISRO is planning the technically challenging soft landing of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on the lunar surface at 5.47 p.m. on August 23, ISRO Chairman S. Somanath said after the launch at Sriharikota.

The Chandrayaan-3 consists of an indigenous lander module (LM), propulsion module (PM), and a rover with the objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for future interplanetary missions.

The success of Chandrayaan-3 will make it the surface mission closest to the lunar south pole to date, a region of the moon that has been found to be geologically unique and host to spots in permanent shadow.

A perfect soft landing on the Moon's surface will make India the fourth country to accomplish this feat, thereby joining a select group of spacefaring nations.

Only the USA, the then-Soviet Union, and China have achieved this feat. India too nearly achieved in its maiden attempt when it launched Chandrayaan-2 in July 2019, before the lander crash-landed very close to the landing spot, making the mission about 99.99 percent success.

Through the Chandrayaan-3 mission, ISRO is crossing new frontiers by demonstrating a soft landing on the lunar surface with its lunar module and roving on the lunar terrain.

It is expected to be supportive of ISRO’s future interplanetary missions.

ISRO said Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.

[With UNI inputs]