Chandrayaan-3: ISRO integrates spacecraft with launch vehicle

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft was on July 5 integrated with the Launch Vehicle Mark 3. Credit: ISRO

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday announced the integration of the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft with the Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM3). The national space agency is eyeing a July 12-19 launch window for the lunar mission.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to 2019’s Chandrayaan-2 which saw an unsuccessful landing attempt. “Today, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, the encapsulated assembly containing Chandrayaan-3 is mated with LVM3,” ISRO tweeted on Wednesday.

LVM3 is set to launch from SDSC, Sriharikota, the spacecraft which comes in a lander-rover configuration. The propulsion module is designed to carry the configuration till 100 km lunar orbit.

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The mission aims to demonstrate safe and soft landing of the spacecraft on the lunar surface, to demonstrate the rover’s movement on the moon and conduct in-situ scientific experiments with payloads on the lander and the rover.

The lander will have the capability to soft-land at a specified lunar site and deploy the rover which will carry out in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface, ISRO said.