Destination Moon: Chandrayaan-3 leaves Earth's orbit
Bengaluru (PTI): ISRO on Tuesday said India's third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 has completed its orbits around the Earth and is now heading towards the Moon.
A key manoeuvre to slingshot the spacecraft towards the Moon from Earth's orbit was carried out in the early hours of Tuesday. This move put Chandrayaan-3 in a translunar orbit moving it out of the Earth's orbit and closing in on the Moon's orbit. In around five days from now, the spacecraft will reach the Moon's orbit.
The slingshot was performed by ISRO scientists who, from the space centre here, fired Chandrayaan-3's onboard thrusters when the spacecraft was at the closest point to Earth (perigee).
"A successful perigee-firing performed at ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network). ISRO has injected the spacecraft into the translunar orbit," it said.
"Chandrayaan-3 completes its orbits around the Earth and heads towards the moon," the national space agency said, adding, "Next stop: the moon."
"As it arrives at the moon, the Lunar-Orbit Insertion is planned for August 5, 2023," ISRO said.
An ISRO official told PTI that following the translunar injection, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft escaped from orbiting the Earth and is now following a path that would take it to the vicinity of the Moon. The ISRO had said it would attempt soft-landing on the lunar surface on August 23.
The spacecraft's orbit was progressively increased five times after the Chandrayaan-3 mission to Moon was launched on July 14.
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K’taka HC gives nod to ED to conduct probe in MUDA land scam case
Bengaluru: A division bench of the High Court has on Wednesday given a green signal to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to probe in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) land scam case.
The bench directed the ED to investigate other accused based on the statement of former MUDA Commissioner D.B. Natesh.
ED involvement in the MUDA case is likely to pose further trouble for CM Siddaramaiah, who has been named as accused No. 1 (A1), his wife Parvati (accused No. 2), and others in the case.
Earlier, a single-judge bench had dismissed a petition filed by Natesh seeking to quash the ED summons. He later appealed to the division bench challenging this decision.
The division bench, comprising Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice K.V. Aravind refused to stay the single-judge bench’s order, allowing the ED probe to continue based on Natesh's statement.
Meanwhile, the ED has filed a petition in the Special Court for people’s representatives, seeking the rejection of the investigation report submitted by the Lokayukta police in the MUDA case.
In its eight-page complaint submitted on Tuesday, the ED asserted that there is sufficient evidence linking CM Siddaramaiah and his family to the alleged scam. The agency also accused the Lokayukta of making errors in its investigation while refusing to acknowledge them, urging the court to dismiss its report.
