Chandrayaan-3, India’s third moon mission and its second attempt to make a soft lunar landing, took off successfully on July 14 at 2:35 pm aboard the Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM 3) rocket from the second launchpad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
At the end of the countdown, the LVM3-M4 rocket lifted off majestically at the prefixed time. The lift-off was normal and smooth, ISRO said. The stage separations were executed precisely as planned, it added.
About 16 minutes after lift-off, Chandrayaan-3 got separated from the rocket and it 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.
ISRO announced the Chandrayaan-3 mission as accomplished after the satellite entered the orbit after an event-free flight.The 25.30-hour countdown for the lift off had commenced at 1.05 pm a day earlier.
This mission is an important part of ISRO's long-term plan as it eyes future inter-planetary odysseys.
More than 10,000 people from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka arrived at Sriharikota since early morning to watch the D-Day unfold. They were allowed to witness the launch from the dedicated space gallery set up by ISRO adjacent to the main entrance of the space centre.
ISRO said that it had conducted a review of the mission readiness ahead of the scheduled launch.The ‘Launch Rehearsal’ simulating the entire launch preparation and process was concluded earlier.
Chandrayaan-3 is equipped with a lander, a rover and a propulsion module. Its weight is about 3,900 kilograms.
Having flown 3.84 lakh km, the LVM 3 is scheduled for a lunar touchdown on August 23-24.The soft landing, the most challenging part of the mission, is planned for late August. Chandrayaan 2 could not achieve this objective when communication with the Lander 'Vikram' was lost.
If success is achieved, Chandrayaan-3 will mark India's entry into an elite club of countries comprising the US, Russia and China that have successfully accomplished lunar landings.
The Chandrayaan programme was first announced on August 15, 2003 by the then Prime Minister, the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
The first mission, Chandrayaan-1, took off on October 22, 2008. After entering Lunar Transfer Trajectory as planned, the Moon impact probe ejected and crashed near the lunar South Pole. This mission confirmed the presence of water molecules on Moon's surface. On August 28, 2009, the end of the first mission was announced by ISRO.
Chandrayaan-2, the second mission, was launched on July 22, 2019, entering lunar orbit on August 20, 2019. On September 2, 2019, the Vikram Lander was separated while orbiting the moon in a 100kms lunar polar orbit. Relay from Vikarm to ground stations was lost at an altitude of 2.1 km from the lunar surface — a development that negatively impacted India's credentials as a spacefaring power.
Chandrayaan-3 mission is a follow-up to the second lunar mission. According to scientists involved in the project, Chandrayaan-3 should be able to handle the challenges better than the two missions that came before.
Chandrayaan-3 is India's first major mission since Narendra Modi's government unveiled policies to boost investment in space launches and related satellite-based businesses.
The LVM3 rocket is a composite of three modules -- propulsion, lander and rover (which is housed inside the lander).
Following the separation from the launch vehicle, the propulsion module along with the lander 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.
The mission has eight payloads in total. The Vikram lander carries 4 instruments, the Pragyan rover two, and Propulsion Module or the Orbiter carries one experiment.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.
After reaching the desired altitude, 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, scientists at ISRO said.
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