Isro launches Chandrayaan-3

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Friday successfully deployed Chandrayaan-3, India’s third mission to the moon, in orbit. The mission comes four years after the Chandrayaan-2, the second mission, failed to make a soft landing on the Moon.

- Shouvik Das

Deployed aboard Isro’s heavy rocket, Launch Vehicle Mark (LVM)-3, Chandrayaan-3 took off from the central space agency’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, at 2:30 pm. It then successfully injected the Chandrayaan-3 orbiter module with its entire suite of payloads in orbit, which will now trace a trajectory to the Moon.

Chandrayaan-3 will attempt a soft landing on the south pole of the lunar surface on 23 August, subject to favourable conditions. If successful, India will become the first nation in the world to land on the Moon’s south pole.