India has successfully launched the Chandrayaan 3 Spacecraft as part of its third lunar mission. The spacecraft successfully lifted off at 2.35 pm today from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
The Chandrayaan 3 is the country’s second attempt at landing a spacecraft on the surface of the moon. If the soft landing of the spacecraft succeeds, India will be the fourth country in the world to have achieved such a feat.
To achieve this, the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft was lifted off from an LVM3 rocket from the second launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. This rocket will propel the spacecraft up to an altitude of 179.192 kilometres.
According to officials at ISRO, this distance will be covered in just over 16 minutes, and the maximum thrust achieved will be more than 36,000km/hr. Moreover, during this stage, the LVM3 rocket will be carrying a payload of 3,895 kilogrammes.
After achieving an altitude of 179.192 kilometres, the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft will be detached from the LVM3 rocket. If everything goes as planned, the Chardrayaan 3 is expected to land on August 23 or August 24.
If the Chandrayaan 3 is suspected to fail to land on this date, then the soft-landing of the spacecraft will be postponed up to a month. This is done to make sure that Chandrayaan 3 gets 15 days of sunshine after it lands on the surface of the moon.
What is very interesting is that the Chandrayaan 3 does not have an orbiter module like the Chandrayaan 2. As such, the orbiter from Chandrayaan 2 that is still working will provide communication connectivity for the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft.
Speaking about the Chandrayaan 2, the spacecraft almost tasted success as the automated systems managed to reduce speeds from 6000km/h to just 7.2km/h. Unfortunately, the spacecraft went out of control during the fine braking phase and crashed on the moon.
The successful soft-landing of the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft on the surface of the moon will make India one of just four countries to achieve this remarkable feat. This mission also incorporates various findings from the Chandrayaan 2 mission to make it successful.
