Last Updated: July 06, 2023, 17:57 IST
ISRO’s third attempt to land on the Moon takes off next week
ISRO is ready to launch its new attempt to land on the Lunar surface and the launch vehicle is already mated to the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has finally given us the official launch date for the Chandrayaan 3 lunar mission for this month. The latest space mission to the Moon is set to take off on Friday, July 14 at 2:35 PM IST from SDSC, Sriharikota. The space agency shared the update via this post on Thursday.
Announcing the launch of Chandrayaan-3:LVM3-M4/Chandrayaan-3 ️Mission:The launch is now scheduled for July 14, 2023, at 2:35 pm IST from SDSC, Sriharikota
Stay tuned for the updates!
— ISRO (@isro) July 6, 2023
ISRO has also shared that LVM3-M4 will be the launch vehicle to move forward with the Chandrayaan-3 mission, and that the Chandrayaan 3 is already mated to this launch vehicle.
ISRO will be hoping to finally get Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft make a soft landing on the Lunar surface. Previously, ISRO had talked about a mid-July launch timeline, with a projected landing on the Moon’s surface around August 23. The launch next week will be livestreamed across different platforms, keeping you up-to-date with the progress made by the launcher once it exits the Earth’s atmosphere.
According to reports, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has undergone testing and been encapsulated inside the rocket’s payload fairing or heat shield. It is being readied at the Sriharikota rocket port in Andhra Pradesh. The primary objective of this mission is to safely land the lander on the moon’s surface, followed by the deployment of a rover to conduct various experiments.
In comparison to the previous lander involved in the Chandrayaan-2 mission, several modifications have been made to the current lander. It will now feature four motors instead of five, and certain software changes have also been implemented. We still don’t know the specific details such as the name of the lander and rover to be deployed for this mission.
An important addition to the upcoming Chandrayaan-3 lunar mission is the inclusion of the Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload. This advanced equipment is designed to conduct extensive studies and gather valuable data on Earth’s spectral and polarimetric measurements from the lunar orbit.
This payload will play a crucial role in expanding our knowledge of Earth and furthering scientific research in the field of planetary exploration.
