India lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 likely to be launched next year

INDIA'S lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 is likely to be launched during the third quarter of 2022, the country’s minister of state in the department of space, said on Wednesday (28), stressing that the progress was hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Responding in writing to a question in Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament, Singh said the launch of Chandrayaan-3 was rescheduled.

“Chandrayaan-3 is likely to be launched during third quarter of 2022 assuming normal work flow henceforth,” he said, adding the realisation of the mission involves various processes, including finalisation of configuration, subsystems realisation, integration, spacecraft level detailed testing, etc.

“The realisation progress was hampered due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

He said that all works that were possible in the work from home mode were taken up even during the lockdown periods and Chandrayaan-3 realisation resumed after commencement of unlock period and is currently in matured stage of realisation.

Chandrayaan-2, which is aimed at landing a rover on an uncharted Lunar South Pole, was launched on July 22, 2019, on board the country's most powerful geosynchronous launch vehicle.

However, the lander Vikram hard-landed on September 7, 2019, crashing India’s dream to become the first nation to successfully land on the lunar surface in its maiden attempt.

Chandrayaan-3 is critical for the Indian Space Research Organisation as it will demonstrate India’s capacity to make landings for further interplanetary missions.