Chandrayaan-3 to be launched in July 2023: ISRO

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somnath on Monday said that the Chandrayaan-3- the third edition of India’s mission to the moon- will be launched this July.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. “I am very confident...” said Somnath on Monday on the lunar mission.

The ISRO chairman was speaking after the space agency successfully placed the NVS-01, the first of the second-generation satellite series, into geosynchronous transfer orbit. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle deployed the NVS-01 navigation satellite from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDC SHAR) in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

Speaking to ANI, Somanath said, “The lesson is very simple. Learn from the past, and do what is possible with your capacity. Failures may happen. There are a thousand reasons for a rocket to fail. Even today, this mission could have failed. But we have to do what is needed to be done”.

Meanwhile, the Chandraayan-3 mission consists of an indigenous lander module a propulsion module and a rover with an objective of developing and demonstrating new technologies required for Inter planetary missions.

According to ISRO, the three mission objectives of the Chandrayaan-3 are- to demonstrate safe and soft landing on lunar Surface; to demonstrate Rover roving on the moon and to conduct insitu scientific experiments.

It will be launched by the LVM3 rocket from SDSC SHAR centre in Sriharikota. The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit, according to ISRO.

The propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit. The Lander will have the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the Rover which will carry out insitu chemical analysis of the lunar surface during the course of its mobility. The Lander and the Rover have scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the lunar surface.