Chandrayaan-3 shows Earth what the Moon looks like up close in 2023. Viral video

ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 mission is now much closer to the Moon. The spacecraft successfully left Earth's orbit on August 5 and is now in the lunar orbit. As of August 6, ISRO said the spacecraft successfully completed a planned lunar orbit reduction, meaning it is even closer to the Moon. 

• Chandrayaan-3 also captured the first few images of the Earth's satellite.

• The next Lunar bound orbit manoeuvre is scheduled for August 9. The chart below shows Chandrayaan-3's path to land on the Moon. 

• Chandrayaan-3 was launched by ISRO on July 14 with the aim of soft landing on the south polar region of the Moon, which remains in shade. 
• It is expected to soft land on August 23 or 24.
• Chandrayaan-3 consists of a propulsion module, a lander - Vikram - and a rover. 
• Chandrayaan-3 is the continuation of the Chandrayaan-2 mission that was launched in 2019. However, the Chandrayaan-2 mission wasn't able to soft land on the moon and instead, crashed during landing. 
• Chanrayaan-3 aims to successfully complete the mission by learning from the shortcomings of the last failed mission. 
• In response, Chandrayaan-3 landing site is bigger than the landing site of Chandrayaan-2. 

If successful, India will join the ranks of a handful of countries like the US, China, and the former Soviet Union to soft land on the moon. 

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