ISRO all set for Chandrayaan-3 launch
India’s upgraded ‘Bahubali’ rocket is standing tall on the coast of the Bay of Bengal in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota waiting to loft India’s Chandrayaan-3 satellite towards the moon.
It is an important experiment to master soft landing on a celestial body and if all goes well then the third lunar journey by India will begin on Friday (July 14) at 2.35 pm.
Chandrayaan-3 is India’s third mission to the moon and a satellite weighing 3921 kilograms will be lofted on its long, nearly four lakh kilometre, journey.
The upgraded ‘Bahubali’ rocket, now renamed Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LM-3), weighs 642 tons, which is equal to the combined weight of about 130 full grown Asian elephants. It is a humongous rocket standing 43.5 meters tall, which is more than half the height of the Qutub Minar which is 72 meters tall.
This will be the sixth flight of the rocket which has a one hundred per cent success rate till datw. Hence, hopes are high for the successful lift off from India’s space port.
Chandrayaan-3 is essentially a bold scientific mission with an objective to successfully demonstrate soft landing near the south pole of the moon.
It also carries seven scientific instruments, if India succeeds it will become the fourth country after Russia, USA and China to soft land on the moon, said Mr S Somanath, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The SUV sized satellite is essentially a large propulsion module which will nudge the Vikram Lander and Pragyaan Rover to the lunar orbit. If all goes as per the plan, the earliest the lunar landing could be attempted will be on August 23.
India hopes to carry out analysis of the lunar soil, rove around the moon surface, also log moon quakes.