Chandrayaan-3 mission: How the last minutes of landing will look like

NEW DELHI: Isro's third Moon mission Chandrayaan-3's Lander Module (LM) is all set to touch down on the Moon at 6:04pm on Wednesday, making it only the fourth country to do so.

Also See: Chandrayaan 3 Landing Live

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is in South Africa to attend the 15th BRICS Summit, will virtually witness the historic landing attempt on the lunar surface.


On Tuesday, Isro said all systems were working as per plan. “The mission is on schedule. Systems are undergoing regular checks. Smooth sailing is continuing. The mission operations complex (MOX) is buzzing with energy & excitement,” the agency said.


Isro will attempt to land Vikram on Moon at 6.04pm. The landing module will be at an altitude of 25km when the power descent phase begins. This involves a set of complex tasks. If all goes according to plan, here’s how Chandrayaan-3 will touch down on the lunar surface:

Rough braking and altitude holding:

Begins at 25km with Vikram’s orientation being horizontal. After the end of this phase, which will take around 690 secs (around 11.5 mins), Vikram reaches an altitude of 7.4km

At 7.4km, the lander holds the altitude for about 10 seconds before going down to 6.8km.


Fine braking

This phase begins at an altitude of 6.8km. About 175 seconds (around 2.9 mins) later, Vikram reaches an altitude of 800m.

Now the lander hovers for 12 seconds. In another 131 secs (around 2.2 mins), it reaches an altitude of around 150m.

Terminal descent

This is the most crucial part of the landing when Vikram hovers for around 22 seconds at 150m and checks for boulders, craters or other obstacle.



Based on hazard verification, Vikram either continues vertical descent or chooses an alternative site a few metres away. If it does the latter, there will be a delay of 52 seconds.

In the next 38 seconds, Vikram will reach an altitude of 60m and descends to 10m above the lunar surface.

From 10m, Vikram takes 9 seconds to soft-land on Moon.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission can be streamed live from 5:27pm.

Tune in to the official Isro website to catch the live stream as the spacecraft makes its descent onto the lunar surface. The Isro's official YouTube channel will also be broadcasting the landing.



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