The countdown for the launch of the Chandrayaan-3, India's third mission to the moon is about to begun, and the preparations are in full swing.

The mission aims to achieve what its predecessor could not — land softly on the lunar surface and explore it with a rover.

A successful soft landing will make India the fourth country, after the United States, Russia, and China, to achieve the feat.

Tomorrow's lunar expedition follows the 2019 Chandrayaan-2 mission where space scientists are aiming for a soft landing on the surface of the moon.

The position remains vacant after the missions from Israel and India in 2019 crash-landed and the spacecraft carrying a lander-rover from Japan and a rover from UAE failed in 2022.

"LVM3M4-CHANDRAYAAN-3 MISSION: The countdown leading to the launch tomorrow (Friday- July 14) at 14.35 hrs has commenced," ISRO said in a social media post.

After launching into an orbit around the Earth at an altitude of 179 km on Friday, the spacecraft will gradually increase its orbit in a series of manoeuvres to escape the Earth’s gravity and slingshot towards the moon. After reaching close to the moon, the spacecraft will need to be captured by its gravity. Once that happens, another series of manoeuvres will reduce the orbit of the spacecraft to a 100×100 km circular one. Thereafter, the lander, which carries the rover inside it, will separate from the propulsion module and start its powered descent.

This whole process is likely to take around 42 days, with the landing slated for August 23 at the lunar dawn. Lunar days and nights last for 14 earth days. The lander and rover are built to last only one lunar day — they can’t survive the extreme drop in temperatures during lunar nights — and hence have to land right at dawn.

Source: IndianExpress