NB Explains | ISRO chairman reveals Chandrayaan-3 launch date; know about lunar mission

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced the launch of Chandrayaan 3, India's third lunar mission, on Wednesday. It is being said that mission which involves landing a rover on the lunar surface, will take place on July 13 at 2:30 pm from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, they added.

 

ISRO Chairman S Somanath however denied a confirmed date and said the agency is exploring a range of dates between July 12 and 19.

 

"Currently, the opportunity lies between July 12 and 19. We will opt for the earliest feasible date, and progress towards the end, unless any technical issues arise. No specific date has been announced yet. We will finalise the exact date once all the tests are completed,” he told reporters.

 

 

 

As per ISRO, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has been fully constructed and assembled, along with the faring, and is awaiting integration with the rocket. “Rocket integration is underway and is expected to be completed in the next two to three days, following which a series of tests will be conducted,” Somanath added.

 

 

Chandrayaan-3 serves as a subsequent mission to Chandrayaan-2, aiming to showcase the end-to-end capability of safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. The mission consists of a lander and rover configuration.

 

The Chandrayaan-3 will be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota by the launch vehicle mark III.

 

This spacecraft consists of an indigenous Lander Module (LM), a Propulsion Module (PM), and a rover to develop and demonstrate new technologies required for interplanetary missions.

 

This mission aims to explore the far side of the moon and will attempt to soft land on the lunar surface. The spacecraft is designed to conduct extensive studies and gather valuable on Earth's spectral and polarimetric measurements from the lunar orbit.

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