BENGALURU: Officials from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed that the launch of Chandrayaan-3 has been scheduled for July 13 at 2:30 pm.
Initially, ISRO Chairman S Somnath stated that the window that the organisation was looking at for the launch was between July 12 and July 19. However, it has been confirmed by officials that the launch will take place on July 13 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota.
The Chandrayaan-3 is the third mission under the Chandrayaan programme, a lunar exploration programme aimed at proving India’s space capabilities.
The Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 that was launched in 2019. The Chandrayaan-2 consisted of a lunar orbiter, lander and a lunar rover. However, the lander failed while attempting to soft land on the Moon’s surface. The Chandrayaan-3 will continue its predecessor’s mission with an aim to carry out safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. The rover will attempt to study the lunar surface.
The Chandrayaan-3, unlike its predecessors, will not contain an orbiter but instead contain a propulsion module. The propulsion module will carry one payload, the Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE).
Meanwhile, the lander will also carry four payloads - Radio Anatomy of Moon Bound Hypersensitive Ionosphere and Atmosphere (RAMBHA), Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE), Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) and the LASER Retroreflector Array (LRA). The rover will also carry two payloads - the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and the LASER Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS).