Chandrayaan-3 is not a replica of the previous mission, ISRO chief said.
The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to launch its third lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 in June next year, ISRO Chairman S Somnath said at an event. “Chandrayaan-3 (C-3) launch will be in June next year onboard the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3),” he said, as reported by PTI.
“C-3 is ready now. It is not a replica of C-2. The rover is there. The engineering is significantly different. We have made it more robust so that it does not have problems like last time,” according to the report that cited Somnath. “There are many changes. The impact legs are stronger. It will have better instrumentation. In case something fails, something else will take over.
In 2019, India hoped to become the fourth country, just after the U.S, Russia, and China, to make a successful landing on the moon with its Vikram lander. The lander, which was a part of the Chadrayaan-2 mission, crashed on the surface of the moon. Days after the crash, a NASA satellite released an image of the site of the spacecraft’s impact and associated debris field.
Furthermore, the Indian space agency has also lined up the first test flight of the ‘abort mission’ for the country’s first human spaceflight Gaganyaan early next year. The organization would carry out six test flights before actually flying humans into orbit. However, ISRO’s Somnath added that Indian astronauts could fly into orbit by the end of 2024 after carrying out successful abort missions and uncrewed test flights.
