ISRO to launch Chandrayaan-3, its third mission to moon, in June 2023
ISRO chairman S Somanath said Chandrayaan-3 will be launched in June next year
With a more robust lunar rover onboard, the Indian Space Research Organisation planned to launch its third mission to the moon, Chandrayaan-3, in June of next year.
The move will help the organisation in its future interplanetary explorations. In addition to setting the timeline for Chandrayan-3, ISRO has also lined up the first test flight of the 'abort mission for Gaganyaan, the country's first human spaceflight, early next year.
"Chandrayaan-3 (C-3) launch will be in June next year onboard the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3)," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S Somanath told PTI.
After informing about the first test flight of the ‘abort mission’, he also said ISRO has decided to fly Indian astronauts into orbit by the end of 2024 after carrying out successful abort missions and uncrewed test flights.
It is worth noting that India failed in its maiden attempt to land a rover on the moon after the Vikram lander onboard the Chandrayaan-2 mission crashed on the moon in September 2019.
"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," Somnath said.
ISRO would carry six test flights before human spaceflight
Talking about human spaceflight Gaganyan, ISRO Chief informed that the organisation will carry out six test flights before actually flying humans into orbit. Somnath said the preparations for the Gaganyaan mission were progressing at a "slow and steady pace".
He called the mission complex and said that it requires critical steps to be crossed. S Somnath told the media about the changes that have been made in the rover for the mission's success. The impact legs are stronger with better instrumentation. This will ensure that if in case something fails, something else will take over.
He said the rover will also have different methods to calculate the height to be travelled, identify hazard-free locations and have better software.
Abort Mission
Gaganyaan's first un-crewed flight will be done after two abort missions to ensure that ISRO can rescue the crew in case of any eventuality.
The first abort mission is planned to be carried out in trans-sonic situations at the time when the spacecraft is travelling at the speed of sound and will reach an altitude of 10-15 km.
The second abort mission would help the space agency in demonstrating crew rescue capabilities when the spacecraft's speed is twice of that of sound and in "not so good" aerodynamic conditions.
As a part of abort mission, the space scientists will use a saving system to sail the crew from the launch vehicle. After wards, the test will require the crew to safely land in water with the help of capsule.
"If this is successful, we will repeat it once again and then we will go for an unmanned mission. The unmanned mission will be a full-fledged rocket. It will go to orbit, then it will come back," Somnath said.
The ISRO chief told that they will perform the abort missions two more times before another unmanned mission. The human spaceflight will take place only if all the six test flights will be successful.
(With inputs from PTI)
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First Published:20 Oct 2022, 09:13 PM IST
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