Isro to launch Chandrayaan-3, Aditya-L1 missions in mid-2023

Days after the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) completed essential tests on the Chandrayaan-3, the mission is likely to launch in mid-2023. The Indian space agency chief S Somnath said that the launch of Chandrayaan-3, India's third lunar mission, will likely be done by the middle of 2023.

"The Chandrayaan-3 craft is fully ready. It is fully integrated. Of course, there is some correction work being done, and we are building a lot of confidence in the mission through lots of simulations and tests, etc. And possibly the launch can take place by the middle of this year," Somnath 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. It consists of the Lander and Rover configuration. Somanath said it would have a similar structure as that of Chandrayaan-2, with the orbiter, a lander, and a rover.

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"Of course, the orbiter is devoid of all those payloads that are there in Chandrayaan-2. It will only have a little bit of payload. But the primary objective is to take the lander to the orbit of the moon and make it land. "The primary objective of Chandrayaan-3 is going to be a precise landing. For that, a lot of work is being done today, including building new instruments, building better algorithms, taking care of the failure modes," the space agency chief added.

ADITYA-L1 BEING INTEGRATED

Aditya-L1, India's maiden solar mission, will also be launched into space in the same time period.

Speaking at the 4th Indian Planetary Science Conference, Somnath said that Aditya-L1 is going to be a very unique solar observation capability for which instruments have already been delivered, and ISRO is in the process of integrating them into the satellite.

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"I am also eagerly waiting for this (Aditya-L1) launch to happen, possibly by the middle of this year, and I am sure we will make this mission a great success," said Somanath. The Aditya mission will be launched to Lagrangian Point L1, a vantage point to observe the Sun continuously without disturbance over a long period of time.

"And this is going to be a very unique solar observation capability that we are building. Instruments for this have already been delivered, and we are in the process of integrating these instruments in the satellite," the ISRO chief said. He said the instruments to be used are currently undergoing testing for integration with the satellite.

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