Chandrayaan-3 to be launched between July 12 and 19, says ISRO chief

Thiruvananthapuram: Chandrayaan-3, the third edition of ISRO’s lunar mission, is scheduled to be launched between July 12 and 19 if tests go as planned, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S. Somanath has said.

The ISRO Chairman was speaking at Kothavara St Xavier’s College, Vaikam in Kottayam district after inaugurating a one-day workshop and space exhibition organised by ISRO on Monday.  He said that the Chandrayaan has already reached the launch pad in Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, from U R Rao Satellite Centre.

“The final preparations are going on. It will be completed by the end of this month. The rocket, LVM-3, is going to be used for this launch and its assembly is going on. All parts for its assembly have reached Sriharikota. It will be launched between July 12 and 19,” Somanath said.

He said that in order to avoid any problems during the upcoming launch, corrections have been made in Chandrayaan-3, in its hardware, structure, computers, software, and sensors.

“More fuel has been added and the landing legs have been strengthened. For producing more energy big solar panels have been fixed. And an additional sensor is also added. To measure its speed, a ‘Laser Doppler VelociMeter’ instrument, which was developed last year, has been added. We have also changed its algorithm and new software has been added to help Chandrayaan to land in another area if there is any failure at the scheduled spot,” the ISRO Chairman explained.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.

According to ISRO, the three mission objectives of the Chandrayaan-3 are- to demonstrate safe and soft landing on the lunar surface; to demonstrate Rover roving on the moon and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

According to ISRO, the propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till the 100km lunar orbit. The propulsion module has a Spectropolarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.