New Delhi:The launch of Chandrayaan-3 has been scheduled for July 13 at 2:30 pm, officials said on Wednesday. This is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. It has a lander and rover configuration,
Chandrayaan-3 will be launched by the Launch Vehicle Mark-III from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and this is scheduled for July 13 at 2:30 pm, according to the officials. The propulsion module will carry the lander and rover configuration till 100 km lunar orbit. It has a Spectro-Polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth payload to study the spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.
Chandrayaan-3, the third edition of ISRO's lunar mission, would be launched between July 12 and 19, 2023 if tests go as planned, said Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S Somanath.
The ISRO Chairman was speaking at Kothavara St Xavier's College, Vaikam in Kottayam district after inaugurating a one-day workshop and space exhibition organised by ISRO on Monday.
S Somanath said that the Chandrayaan has already reached the launch pad in Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, from U R Rao Satellite Centre.
"The final preparations are going on. It will be completed by the end of this month. The rocket, LVM-3, is going to be used for this launch and its assembly is going on. All parts for its assembly have reached Sriharikota. It will be launched between July 12 and 19," said ISRO chairman S Somanath.
He said that in order to avoid any problems during the upcoming launch, corrections have been made in Chandrayaan-3, in its hardware, structure, computers, software, and sensors.
"More fuel added and the landing legs have been strengthened. For producing more energy big solar panels have been fixed. And an additional sensor is also added. To measure its speed, a 'Laser Doppler VelociMeter' instrument, which was developed in the last year, has been added. We have also changed its algorithm and new software has been added to help Chandrayaan to land in another area if there is any failure at the scheduled spot," said the ISRO Chairman.
