ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 begins countdown for launch from Sriharikota

Chandrayaan is a combination of two Sanskrit words, Chandra and Yaan. (Image: ISRO)

ISRO’s home-grown moon exploration mission, Chandrayaan-3, will be launched with Launching Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM 3) Geosynchronous Satellite Launching Vehicle (GSLV) used to launch heavy payloads.

The LVM 3 will comprise different stages that will gradually separate in space before the Lander Module (LM) and Propulsion Module (PM) carrying the rover will finally land on the lunar surface in the last week of August.

Also Read: Chandrayaan-3: When and where to watch the Moon mission launch LIVE

The launch vehicle will be launched at 2:35 pm at an altitude of 179 km, where it will be set in an orbit around Earth that will increase gradually before escaping Earth’s gravitational field. This phase of the mission is called the Earth-centric phase including pre-launch, launch and ascent, and Earth-bound manoeuvre.

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In the second phase – the lunar transferring phase – the ensemble will be slingshot towards Moon’s orbit. Once the spacecraft enters Moon’s gravitational field, the spacecraft will again manoeuvre in Moon’s orbit gradually descending closer to the lunar surface.

The Moon-centric phase will include the spacecraft’s descent into Moon’s gravity leading to the separation of the lander and propulsion module carrying the rover when the spacecraft comes as close as a 100×100 km circular orbit of the lunar surface.

Chandrayaan 3 will follow three sequence trajectory till the Moon landing (Image: ISRO)

This entire process will take around 42 days and the LM, PM and rover are expected to land on the lunar surface on August 23 or August 24. They will conduct experiments on the lunar surface for 14 days till the sun shines on the landing area on Moon.

Also read: Chandrayaan-3: 10 facts about July 14 launch mission

The ISRO chairman S. Somnath said, “It is a failure-based design that has been programmed to foresee possible failures and do the corrections required.”

It is a progression from the mistakes witnessed in the launch of Chandrayaan 2 which had crash-landed in 2019.