Bengaluru: Indian Space Research Organisation to lift off Chandrayaan-3 in July this year

Bengaluru : The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is in the final stages launching India's ambitious moon mission Chandrayaan-3 in July this year. The spacecraft is in the final assembly of the payloads at the UR Rao Satellite Centre.

The Chandrayaan-3 mission carries scientific instruments to study the thermo-physical properties of the lunar regolith, lunar seismicity, lunar surface plasma environment and elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site. "We could launch in the first or second week of July, a final date is yet to be decided," according to a senior official.

In March this year, Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft successfully completed the essential tests that validated its capability to withstand the harsh vibration and acoustic environment that the spacecraft would face during its launch. The third spacecraft, part of the Chandrayaan programme, will launch on India's heaviest launch vehicle, Launch Vehicle Mark-III, also called the GSLV Mk III from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota. The spacecraft is a combination of three systems -- propulsion, lander and rover. Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-up to the Chandrayan-2 mission that will demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface and consists of a lander-rover configuration. "The primary objective of Chandrayaan-3 is going to be a precise landing. For that, a lot of work is being done today, including building new instruments, building better algorithms, taking care of the failure modes," ISRO chief S Somnath had said recently.

ISRO has completed the flight acceptance hot test of the CE-20 cryogenic engine that will power the cryogenic upper stage of the launch vehicle for the Chandrayaan-3. The hot test was carried out for a planned duration of 25 seconds at the High-Altitude Test Facility of the ISRO Propulsion Complex at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu.

Chandrayaan-3 lander also successfully underwent EMI/EMC test at U R Rao Satellite Centre. The Magnetic Interference/ Electro - Magnetic Compatibility test is conducted for satellite missions to ensure the functionality of the satellite subsystems in the space environment and their compatibility with the expected electromagnetic levels.