Launch of India's third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 gets delayed further to 2022

New Delhi, February 22: Acknowledging the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has again postponed the launch of India's most ambitious project Chandrayaan-3. According to the ISRO chief K Sivan, now Chandrayaan-3 will be launched in 2022.

K Sivan said, "Covid lockdown has hit several projects of the ISRO including CHandrayaan-3 which was scheduled to be launched in late 2020. It has also affected India's third mission to Moon Gaganyaan."He further informed that unlike Chandrayaan-2, India's third mission to Moon is not going to have any orbiter. "We are working on it. It is the same configuration as Chandrayaan-2 but, it will not have an orbiter. The orbiter launched during Chandrayaan-2 will be used for Chandrayaan-3. " K Sivan Said.

 

The lander for Chandrayaan-3 will have only four throttle-able engines. Unlike Vikram on Chandrayaan-2 that had five 800 N engines with a fifth one being centrally mounted and with fixed thrust. Additionally, the Chandrayaan-3 lander will also be equipped with a Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV).

 

 

Also read:  Union Budget + Gaganyaan = India's Space Station.

Like its older version, Chnadrayaan-3 has also aimed at landing a rover on the unchartered Lunar South Pole. As per him, Chandrayaan-3 is critical for ISRO as it will demonstrate India's capabilities to make landing for further interplanetary missions.

 

Chandrayaan-2 was launched on July 22, 2019, on board the country's most powerful geosynchronous launch vehicle. However, the lander Vikram hard-landed on September 7, 2019, crashing India's dream to become the first nation to successfully land on the lunar surface in its maiden attempt.

 

 

Apart from the moon mission, he also informed the Gaganyaan project saying, “A lot of technology needs to be demonstrated. We will decide on the time (of the manned mission) after checking whether all the technology is perfect.”