On Wednesday, June 28, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chief, S Somnath, announced that the launch of Chandrayaan-3 is scheduled to take place in mid-July. Chandrayaan-3 is a successor to Chandrayaan-2, with an aim to showcase the capability of safe landing and roving on the surface of the moon.
“Currently, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is fully integrated and we have completed the testing. Rocket-assembling is going on, which will be completed in the next two days. After a testing programme, the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft will be assembled with the rocket, and the launch campaign will take place”, explained S Somnath.
The launch window is currently set as between July 12 and July 19, and the earliest possible date will be chosen, unless a technical issue crops up. The exact date of the launch will hence be announced after all the tests are completed.
The mission will utilize the Launch Vehicle Mark-III from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The propulsion module will transport the lander and rover configuration to a 100 km lunar orbit, equipped with the Spectro-Polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth payload for studying Earth from the moon’s orbit.
