Chennai: Scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), who are gearing up and burning their midnight oil for the successful soft landing of Lander Module carried by its
third Lunar Mission Chandryaaan-3 on August 23, is all set for launching its maiden dedicated polarimetry mission XPOSAT in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions.
Since the satellite will be placed in a LEO, the Indian Space Agency in all likelihood might deploy its most trusted PSLV vehicle, but not before the Sun mission that is going to happen after the soft landing of Chandryaaan-3 for exploration in the hitherto unexplored South Polar Region of the moon.
Having crossed various obstacles in its chequered history, despite overcoming sanctions, India developed its space programme with the designing and development of its own cryogenic engine to power the third stage of the GSLV launch vehicle that propelled it to the successful launch of Chandrayaan-3, which is all set to create history in the next six days from Saturday.
ISRO sources said the XPOSAT mission is likely to take place by the middle or end of next month after the soft landing of Chandryaaan-3 and after the upcoming most prestigious first solar exploratory mission Aditya-L1 to Sun planned early next month, most likely.
ISRO sources said at present the prime and the foremost target for it is the successful landing of the lander that has the capability to soft land at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover, which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface on August 23 to make the Chandryaan-3 mission a resounding success.
Next comes the Sun mission for which the satellite has already been sent to the Sriharikota from Bengaluru where the mandatory tests are being carried out before its integration with the workhorse and the most versatile and reliable PSLV launch vehicle for a possible launch by this month end or first week of next month.
However, it remains to be seen whether ISRO will be using its core alone PSLV version or with its strap-on motors to give further boost to the mission in achieving the specified orbit.
