A final round of tests will be conducted before Chandrayaan-3 is assembled on the rocket, the officials said, adding that the launch vehicle is expected to be moved from the vehicle assembly building to the second launch pad by next week.
“The launch date, which is almost certain, is July 13. However, the final announcement is awaited,” said a top official briefed on the matter, on condition of anonymity.
Isro chairman S Somnath said the launch window for India’s third lunar mission will continue to be between July 12 and July 19.
The Chandrayaan programme, also known as India’s lunar exploration programme, is an ongoing series of space missions by Isro. The first lunar rocket, Chandrayaan-1, was launched in 2008 and was successfully placed into lunar orbit.
Chandrayaan-2 was successfully launched and inserted into lunar orbit in 2019, but its lander made a “hard landing” on the lunar surface when it deviated from its orbit during a landing attempt on 6 September 2019 due to a software glitch.
Chandrayaan-3 aims to do what Chandrayaan-2 could not
It consists of the original lander module, propulsion module and rover. Its goals include the development and demonstration of new technologies needed for interplanetary missions. The lander will have the ability to “soft-land” at a specific lunar location and deploy a rover that will perform in situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during its mobility.
The lander and rover will carry science payloads to conduct experiments on the lunar surface.
Chandrayaan-3 will be launched using the Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM-3), formerly known as the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mk-III (GSLV Mk-III) rocket, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration up to 100 km into lunar orbit.
Written by: Vaishali Verma
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