ISRO Successfully Launches Chandrayaan-3, India’s Third Lunar Mission

• ByStartupStory     |    July 14, 2023

India achieved a significant milestone in space exploration as it successfully launched Chandrayaan-3, the country’s third lunar mission. The Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM-3) carrying the satellite took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14. This mission marks India’s second attempt at a soft landing on the lunar surface, following the unsuccessful Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019.

With this launch, India aims to join the exclusive club of nations that have achieved a successful soft landing on the Moon, currently consisting of the United States, Russia, and China. The LVM-3, equipped with an integrated module comprising a propulsion module, lander module, and rover, placed the satellite in an Elliptic Parking Orbit (EPO) of approximately 170 x 36,500 km.

Chandrayaan-3, featuring an indigenous propulsion module (PM), lander module (LM), and rover, aims to develop and demonstrate new technologies essential for future inter-planetary missions. The lander module has the capability for a soft landing at a designated lunar site, where it will deploy the rover to conduct in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface. Both the lander and rover are equipped with scientific payloads to carry out experiments on the Moon.

Over the next month, the mission will undergo a series of critical manoeuvres, including Earth bound manoeuvres, lunar orbit insertion, moon bound manoeuvres, and PM and Lunar Module separation. The final objective is for the lander to make a soft landing on the Moon, expected to occur on August 23 or 24.

The successful launch of Chandrayaan-3 brings India one step closer to furthering its space exploration endeavors and unlocking new frontiers of scientific knowledge.

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