Chandrayaan-3, India’s third mission to moon, launched successfully from Satish Dhawan space centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota today. It is a major stride for India’s space journey, which has expanded rapidly since the first moon mission in 2008. Its lander Vikram will be taken for landing on the moon’s south pole by rover Pragyan.
The primary objective of Chandrayaan-3 is to prove Indian Space Research organisation’s (ISRO’s) capability of completing a soft landing on the moon. It is also carrying many important payloads that will collect important data about the lunar surface. The landing will take place on August 23-24, after a 40-day journey. The date has been decided based on the availability of sunlight on the moon. There are several days when the moon’s south pole is devoid of any sunlight, making it impossible for the solar panels attached to the lander to charge.
If the date is missed due to any reason, ISRO will have to keep the landing for the next month – in September. Chandrayaan-3 will make India the fourth country after US, China, and Russia, to land its spacecraft on the surface of the moon and demonstrate the country’s abilities for safe and soft landing on lunar surface. It is equipped with a lander, a rover and a propulsion module and weighs around 3,900 kilograms.
‘This remarkable mission will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had tweeted earlier. Chandrayaan-3’s development phase commenced in January 2020 with the launch planned sometime in 2021. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought an unforeseen delay to the mission’s progress.
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