NASA’s LRO Sights the ISRO Chandrayaan-3 Landing Site on the Moon

Wednesday - September 6 2023, 14:19 UTC - 1 year ago

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft imaged the Chandrayaan-3 landing site on the Moon’s surface. Chandrayaan-3 is the third mission in the Chandrayaan program, launched on July 14, 2023. The mission consists of a lunar lander named Vikram and a lunar rover named Pragyan, both developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). LRO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Arizona State University manages and operates LROC.

NASA’s LRO – the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter – spacecraft imaged the Chandrayaan-3 landing site on the Moon’s surface. The ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) Chandrayaan-3 touched down on the Moon on August 23, 2023. The Chandrayaan-3 landing site is located about 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the Moon’s South Pole. The LROC (short for LRO Camera) acquired an oblique view (42-degree slew angle) of the lander four days later. The bright halo around the vehicle resulted from the rocket plume interacting with the fine-grained regolith (soil).

The Chandrayaan-3 mission achieved a successful touchdown after a series of maneuvers to lower its altitude and velocity. The lander maintained a Chandrayaan-3 speed of 3.6 km/50 seconds while descending, and the onboard Vikram lander and Pragyan rover exchanged data for up to a day after the landing. The craft used the ISRO’s Orbiter High Resolution Camera (OHRC) for imaging and the ISRO gallery of Chandrayaan-3 images.

Chandrayaan-3 is the third mission in the Chandrayaan program, a series of lunar exploration missions developed by ISRO. Launched on July 14, 2023, the mission consists of a lunar lander named Vikram and a lunar rover named Pragyan, similar to those launched aboard Chandrayaan-2 in 2019.

LRO is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. Launched on June 18, 2009, LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments, making an invaluable contribution to our knowledge about the Moon. Arizona State University manages and operates LROC.