Isro scientists on Saturday completed the first Earth-bound manoeuvre to increase the altitude and took Chandrayaan-3 further away from Earth in its 3.8-lakh-km journey towards Moon.
The operation, which was carried out to increase the spacecraft’s apogee (farthest point from Earth) began at around 12.05pm as planned and lasted for 11-and-a-half minutes, multiple scientists confirmed to STOI.
After Saturday’s manoeuvre, “Spacecraft is now in 41762km x 173km orbit,” said Isro.”The spacecraft is healthy and today’s manoeuvre went as planned. Further analysis of data is being carried out for the next few manoeuvres,” one scientist said.
If all goes as planned, scientists will carry out a minor burning of onboard propulsion systems on Sunday to increase the perigee (closest point to Earth). It will be pushed to about 220km from the current position.

“The perigee will then remain stable. The remaining three manoeuvres we’ve planned will all be for apogee raising,” another scientist said.
The three other operations around Earth, as reported by TOI earlier, are planned for July 18, 20 and 25 to push apogee to around 1-lakh-km before Isro attempts to slingshot the spacecraft towards Moon, in the intervening night of July 31 and August 1.