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New Delhi: In an attempt to put India in an elite club of nations that accomplished lunar missions with a soft landing, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to launch its Chandrayaan-3 moon mission on Friday. The reason to fix the launch window during the month of July — similar to the Chandrayaan-2 mission (July 22, 2019) — is because the earth and moon would be closer to each other during this time of the year.

Chandrayaan-3 is the Indian space agency’s follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. 

Chandrayaan-3 launch date: How to watch ISRO’s third moon mission launch online

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The Chandrayaan-3 mission launch is scheduled for Friday at 2:35 PM (IST) from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota. 

The ISRO will broadcast the launch live on its official website and its official YouTube channel.

Chandrayaan-3 launch: All about ISRO’s third moon mission

Chandrayaan-3 is the third lunar exploration mission ready for take off in the fourth operational mission (M4) of the LVM3 launcher. LVM3 rocket, which was formerly GSLV MkIII, is the largest and heaviest rocket and is fondly called ‘fat boy’ by ISRO scientists for its heavylift capability. It has so far completed six consecutive successful missions and is a composite of three modules — propulsion, lander and rover (which is housed inside the lander).

After the lift-off, around 16 minutes after lift-off, the propulsion module is expected to get separated from the rocket and would orbit the Earth for about 5-6 times in an elliptical cycle with 170 km closest and 36,500 km farthest from Earth moving towards the lunar orbit.

Chandrayaan-3 mission:

The ‘Launch Rehearsal’ simulating the entire launch preparation and process lasting 24 hours has been concluded.

Mission brochure: https://t.co/cCnH05sPcW pic.twitter.com/oqV1TYux8V
— ISRO (@isro) July 11, 2023

The propulsion module along with the lander, after gaining speed would proceed for an over a month-long journey towards reaching the orbit of the moon until it goes 100 km above the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-3’s soft landing on moon expected on August 23-24

As per the scientists at ISRO, after reaching the desired position, the lander module would begin its descent for a soft landing on the south pole region of the moon and this action is expected to take place on August 23 or 24. 

The moon’s south pole region has been chosen because the Lunar South Pole remains much larger than that at the North pole. There could be a possibility of the presence of water in permanently shadowed areas around it.

The Rover, after the soft-landing, would come out of the lander module and study the surface of the moon through its payloads APXS – Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer – to derive the chemical composition and infer mineralogical composition to further enhance understanding of the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan-3 Launch: ISRO’s three main mission objectives

1. To demonstrate a safe and soft Landing on the lunar surface.

2. To demonstrate Rover roving on the moon.

3. To conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

All about inception of Chandrayaan programme

The Chandrayaan programme was formally announced by former Prime Minister late Atal Bihari Vajpayee on August 15, 2003, following which, the Chandrayaan-1 mission — onboard ISRO’s PSLV-C 11 rocket — kicked off on October 22, 2008.

Weighing 320 tonnes at lift-off, the vehicle used larger strap-on motors to achieve higher payload capability and carried 11 scientific instruments built in India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, and Bulgaria.

Noted scientist Mayilsami Annadurai led the project as the Mission Director of the Chandrayaan-1 mission.

The spacecraft was orbiting around the moon at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface for chemical, mineralogical and photo-geologic mapping of the moon. While the mission achieved all the desired objectives, the orbit of the spacecraft was further raised to 200 km in May 2009, months after the launch.

The satellite made over 3,400 orbits around the moon, more than what was expected by the ISRO team, and the mission finally concluded as the space agency’s scientists declared communication was lost from the spacecraft on August 29, 2009.

Chandrayaan-2 mission failed to achieve desired soft landing 

Buoyed by the success, Chandrayaan-2 was conceived as a more complex mission by ISRO as it carried an orbiter, lander (Vikram) and rover (Pragyan) to explore the unexplored South Pole of the moon. After the lift-off on July 22, 2019, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully inserted into a lunar orbit on August 20 of the same year.

Every move of the spacecraft was precise as the Lander ‘Vikram’ successfully got separated from the Orbiter in preparation for the landing on the lunar surface. After circling the moon at an altitude of 100 km, the descent of the lander was as planned and it was normal up to an altitude of 2.1 km. However, the mission met with an abrupt end as scientists lost communication with Vikram, named after the father of India’s space programme, the late Vikram Sarabhai.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission failed to achieve the desired soft landing on the moon’s surface.

Chandrayaan 2 mission was aimed at expanding the lunar scientific knowledge through a detailed study of topography, seismography, mineral identification and distribution, surface chemical composition, and thermo-physical characteristics of topsoil, leading to a new understanding of the origin and evolution of the moon.

(With inputs from agencies)