Chandrayaan 3 highlights: India's 3rd moon mission begins, landing attempt on August 23

Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3, the word for “moon craft” in Sanskrit, lifts off from Sriharikota, India.

ISRO Chandrayaan-3 Launch Live Updates: The India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday launched its ambitious third lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3, from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, and announced a “successful” separation of satellite into the orbit, achieving a major accomplishment in the moon mission journey.  A successful ‘soft’ landing on the surface of the moon will make India only the fourth country to achieve the feat after the United States, China and the former Soviet Union.

Chandrayaan-3 carries a lander (Vikram) and a rover (Pragyan) with the aim of conducting in-situ scientific experiments on the lunar surface. The lander, this time, has been equipped with stronger legs compared to its previous version to withstand landings at higher velocities. There are four payloads in Vikram and two payloads in Pragyan, which will be used to study lunar characteristics.

Earlier in 2019, the second series of India’s lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2 was launched but it failed to achieve the desired soft landing on the Moon’s surface. The ISRO’s ₹978 crore unmanned mission failed its objective after the lander ceased communication with the ground stations at an altitude of 2.1 km from the surface of the Moon.