With its third lunar exploration mission, India will join the United States, China, and Russia as the only other nations to have successfully landed a spacecraft on the moon.
The 14th of July, Sriharikota The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced that the Chandrayaan-3 satellite was successfully orbited by the spacecraft GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3).
After a successful separation of the Satellite from the launch Vehicle, ISRO scientists made the announcement. The satellite’s voyage to the Moon may now begin after it was injected into the appropriate orbit. The exact orbit of Chandrayaan-3 has began its trip to the Moon. Just minutes after liftoff, ISRO announced that everything looked OK with the spacecraft.
The long-awaited GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle successfully took off at 14:35 UTC on Friday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
The spacecraft is scheduled to settle on the moon on August 23 after a trip that is projected to take over a month from Earth. One lunar day is equivalent to around 14 Earth days, so after it lands, it will run for that long. It takes 14 days on Earth to equal one day on the Moon.
The successful launch of Chandrayaan-3 has been greeted with congratulations from Jitendra Singh, the Union Minister of State for Science and Technology.
India will show its capabilities for a safe and gentle landing on the lunar surface during its third lunar exploration mission, Chandrayaan-3. This will make India the fourth nation after the United States, China, and Russia to accomplish this feat.
Since the 2019 Chandrayaan-2 mission had difficulties during its soft landing on the lunar surface and was ultimately considered to have failed its key mission goals, the ISRO has decided to try again with Chandrayaan-3.
After the orbit-raising manoeuvres, Chandrayaan-3 will be placed on the Lunar Transfer Trajectory. It has travelled nearly 300,000 kilometres and will soon arrive at the Moon. There are scientific devices on board that will examine the lunar surface and expand our understanding of it.
Lander, Rover, and Propulsion Module Make Up Chandrayaan-3. The approximate weight is 3,900 kg.
The Moon stores Earth’s history, therefore if India is successful in its lunar mission, it will improve life on Earth and pave the way for further exploration of the solar system and beyond.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the launch of Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission, on July 14, 2023 would go down in history as one of the most momentous days in India’s space programme.
Prime Minister Modi had tweeted earlier, “This remarkable mission will carry the hopes and dreams of our nation.”
Because of our scientists, India has a long and illustrious history in the space industry. Since Chandrayaan-1 verified the existence of water molecules on the moon, it has been heralded as a pioneer among worldwide lunar missions. Over 200 scientific journals from across the globe covered it,” PM Modi tweeted.
Moon was thought to be completely devoid of life and water prior to the Chandrayaan-1 mission. It’s now recognised as a geologically active and possibly habitable body due to the existence of water and sub-surface ice, he said.
Just as groundbreaking as Chandrayaan-1 was the Orbiter data attached with it, which enabled the first remote sensing detection of chromium, manganese, and sodium. Prime Minister Modi has said that this would also provide light on the magmatic development of the Moon.
Chandrayaan-2 produced several important scientific results, including as the first ever global map of lunar sodium, improved understanding of the distribution of crater sizes, and the unequivocal identification of water ice on the lunar surface with the IIRS sensor. There have been about 50 media appearances by the mission.
The prime minister wished the Chandrayaan-3 mission success and encouraged the public to learn more about India’s achievements in space exploration, scientific research, and technological innovation. And, “it will make you all very proud,” he said.
The planning for Chandrayaan-3’s launch, scheduled for 2021, began in January 2020. However, the mission’s progress was unexpectedly slowed by the Covid-19 epidemic.
Ex-ISRO chief K. Sivan told ANI that the success of the Chandrayan-3 mission will raise morale for future human space missions like India’s Gaganyan.
Nambi Narayanan, a former ISRO scientist who played a key role in the development of India’s space industry, said on Thursday that the Chandrayaan-3 mission will be a huge success and a turning point for India’s space programme.
I believe Chandrayaan-3 will be a watershed moment for India and am rooting for its success. The world will look to India as an example. Let’s hold our breath till launch day and hope for the best,” Nambi Narayanan told ANI.
I expect and pray that it will be a fruitful endeavour. We fixed everything that was wrong with Chandrayaan-2, whatever the issue was. “We have learned from our failure and corrected all of our errors,” said Narayanan, who was awarded India’s third highest civilian accolade, the Padma Bhushan, for his efforts.
