Chandrayaan-3 to launch on July 14 aboard LVM-3 to the Moon

The Indian Space Research Organisation (isro) has announced that the Chandrayaan-3 mission will launch to the Moon on July 14.

The spacecraft will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 2:35 pm, Isro announced after transporting the spacecraft encapsulated aboard the rocket to the launchpad.

Isro had previously said that the mission would launch on July 13, however, the date has not been revised.

Isro chief S Somnath announced that the launch window remains open until July 19 and if the launch does not happen on the scheduled date it could be moved to a back up date until the 19th. Somnath has expressed confidence that the mission will soft-land on the moon this time.

Chandrayaan-3 is the third installment of the Chandrayaan series and represents India’s second attempt to achieve a soft landing on the Moon’s surface. To date, only three countries have successfully landed spacecraft on the airless lunar world.

Equipped with a lander and a rover, the spacecraft will embark on a nearly two-month-long journey to the Moon. It will first be injected into lunar orbit before initiating the landing approach.

The Indian space agency has affirmed that the lander possesses the capability to softly land at a designated lunar site and deploy the rover. The rover will then conduct in-situ chemical analysis of the lunar surface during its mobility.