ISRO completes ‘launch rehearsal’ of Chandrayaan-3

Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh) [India]: 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.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on July 5 integrated the encapsulated assembly containing Chandrayaan-3 with the launch vehicle– LVM3 at Satish Dhawan Space Centre here.

“Today, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, the encapsulated assembly containing Chandrayaan-3 is mated with LVM3,” tweeted ISRO.

The space agency’s chairman S Somnath last month told ANI 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 upto 19th,” Somnath had said.

Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission to Chandrayaan-2 to demonstrate end-to-end capability in safe landing and roving on the lunar surface.

Earlier in October last year, the ISRO chairman said that it is likely to launch its Chandrayan-3 mission in June 2023.

Chandrayaan-2, India’s second mission to the moon, was launched on July 22, 2019, from Satish Dhawan Space Center, Sriharikota. But the mission failed after the Vikram lunar lander crashed on the Moon during the early hours of September 6.