Chandrayaan 3 Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3) M4 rocket lifts off successfully from the launch pad of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Friday July 14 2023. The mission is a follow-up to the unsuccessful Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019, after which the Vikram lander crashed onto the surface of the moon.
A 3,895 kg payload, including the spacecraft was lifted into space by the LVM3 rocket that was launched exactly at 14:35:17 (IST) and followed a trajectory that roughly corresponded to the stages of the Chandrayaan-3 launch plan which is expected a robotic soft landing on the moon’s surface might be conceivable On August 23. Only three countries including the United States of America, Russia, and China have succeeded in soft landings on the moon so far.
NASA, ESA on Chandrayaan-3
The propulsion module successfully detached from the rocket sixteen minutes after launch and started an elliptical orbit of the earth travelling 170 km in front of it and 36,000 km behind it on its way to the lunar orbit. The US Space agency The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and The European Space agency (ESA) congratulated India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on Friday for successfully on a historic movement to the far side of the moon.
S. Somanath, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization said next 42 days are crucial. According to the schedule we will do five earthbound movements which will come to a close on July 31. The trans-lunar insertion follows, and it will happen on August 1. It will then be grabbed by the moon after that. On August 17, the propulsion module and the lander module will separate after this. If all goes according to plan, the landing will be set for August 23 at 5:47 p.m. IST