India to launch Chandrayaan-3 in 2020, says Union Minister Jitendra Singh

Union Minister, Jitendra Singh on Tuesday announced that the country's next mission, Chandrayaan 3 will be a much more economical one. He said that it is likely to be launched in the year 2020. Earlier, Chandrayaan-2 mission, scheduled to make a landing on the lunar surface on September 7, failed to achieve a soft landing, and it crashed instead.

New Delhi: The Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space, Jitendra Singh on Tuesday announced India's next lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3 will be more economical and it is more likely to be launched by the year 2020.

Speaking over the next mission Chandrayaan-3 budget, Singh said, "The lander and the orbiter are already there, so we will be cutting on the cost.

We should not describe Chandrayaan-2 mission as a kind of failure or setback because, in the world history of space technology, there has not been a single country which could achieve a soft landing in less than two attempts."

The Rs 978 core Chandrayaan-2 mission, scheduled to make a landing on the lunar surface on September 7, failed to achieve a soft landing, and it crashed instead.

Singh added even a country like the USA could achieve it only after its sixth or seventh attempt, and this was India's first endeavour.

The positive part of our mission is that the inputs which we are receiving from Mangalyaan and other missions are now being procured by NASA, Singh said.

Singh also informed the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) will most likely commission the third unit of Kakrapar atomic power reactor in April 2020.

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