Isro: Chandrayaan-3 is healthy, completing stages as planned

Chandrayaan-3 is "healthy" and "all stages are being achieved as intended", the Indian Space Research Organisation said on Saturday, ahead of the scheduled second de-boosting operation of the spacecraft on August 20. The current position of the spacecraft is "as intended", the agency said.

- Soumya Pillai

"The health of the lander is good, and we are monitoring it's progress closely. Every stage till this point has gone as we had intended," an Isro official said.

While the initial plan was to the put the lander, Vikram, in an orbit of 30kmx100km, it attained an orbit of 113kmx157km after the first de-boosting operation on Friday, Isro said on Friday.

Officials on Saturday said that this was not particularly a cause for concern. "The 30kmx100km orbit was under nominal conditions. Moreover, these were just estimates because the actual plan has not been revealed due to security reasons. The current position and movement of the spacecraft is being monitored continuously by our teams and everything is going as per the plan," the top official cited above said requesting anonymity.