Countdown starts for India’s Chandrayaan-3

Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar exploration mission, will make India the fourth country to land its spacecraft on the surface of the moon and demonstrate the country’s abilities for safe and soft landing on lunar surface.

The countdown for the launch of the mission began on Thursday at 14:35:17 IST ahead of take-off on Friday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The spacecraft will be launched on a GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle.

This will be Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) follow-up attempt after the Chandrayaan-2 mission faced challenges during its soft landing in 2019. The ‘Launch Rehearsal’ simulating the entire launch preparation and process has been concluded by the ISRO.

A day ahead of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, a team of ISRO scientists on Thursday visited and offered prayers at Tirupathi Venkatachalapathy Temple in Andhra Pradesh with a miniature model of Chandrayaan-3.
If all goes well, Chandrayaan-3 will be the first spacecraft to land on Moon’s South Pole, demonstrating India’s technical prowess and bold spacefaring ambitions.

Chandrayaan-3 mission will demonstrate a safe and soft landing on the lunar surface, rover roving on the moon and conducting in-situ scientific experiments.
ISRO invited citizens to witness the launch of the much-awaited Chandrayaan-3 from the viewing gallery at Sriharikota.
During the Chandrayaan-2 mission, ISRO lost contact with the lander when it was just a notch away from the moon’s surface.

The journey from Earth to the moon for the to-be-launched spacecraft is estimated to take around a month and the landing is expected on August 23.
Upon landing, it will operate for one lunar day, which is approximately 14 Earth days. One day on Moon is equal to 14 days on Earth. K Sivan, former director of ISRO, told ANI that the success of mission Chandrayan-3 will give a morale boost to programs like Gaganyan.