Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft completed its fifth and final orbit-raising manoeuvre on Tuesday, preparing for lunar insertion. The next step is to shift to an Earth-to-Moon trajectory, where the Moon’s gravity will eventually pull it into lunar orbit.

“The orbit-raising manoeuvre (Earth-bound perigee firing) is performed successfully from ISTRAC/ISRO, Bengaluru. The spacecraft is expected to attain an orbit of 127609 km x 236 km. The achieved orbit will be confirmed after the observations,” the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a tweet.

“The next firing, the TransLunar Injection (TLI), is planned for August 1, between 12 midnight and 1 am IST,” it added.

Chandrayaan-3, India’s third moon mission, took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Station, Sriharikota on July 14. It is expected to reach the moon’s South Pole for a soft landing with a lander and rover on August 23 or August 24.

Only three countries—the US, China, and Russia—have managed to land on the lunar surface so far.