Tirupati: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Tuesday completed the ‘launch rehearsal’ for Chandrayaan-3 which will be launched on July 14 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
“Chandrayaan-3 mission: The ‘Launch Rehearsal’ simulating the entire launch preparation and process lasting 24 hours has been concluded,” ISRO tweeted.
Earlier on July 5, ISRO integrated the encapsulated assembly, containing Chandrayaan-3, with the launch vehicle-LVM3 at Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
The space agency’s chairman, S. Somanath, told me last month that they are planning for the launch day of its third lunar mission between July 13-19.
“We will be able to do a soft landing on the moon. The launch day is July 13, it can go up to the 19th,” Somanath had said.
Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability for safe landing and roving on the lunar surface. In October last year, the ISRO chairman said that it is likely to launch its Chandrayaan-3 mission in June 2023.
Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the moon, was launched on July 22, 2019, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. But the mission failed after the Vikram lunar lander crashed on the moon during the early hours of September 6.
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