Chandrayaan-3: The third Lunar mission successfully mated with Launch Vehicle ‘LVM3’

New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organization on July 5 successfully integrated the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft with the launch vehicle, LVM3 (Launch Vehicle Mark-III), At the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.  Announcing the same in a tweet, ISRO said,’ “LVM3-M4/Chandrayaan-3 Mission today at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota is mating Chandrayaan-3 with launching vehicle LVM3.”

?LVM3-M4/Chandrayaan-3?️ Mission:

Today, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, the encapsulated assembly containing Chandrayaan-3 is mated with LVM3. pic.twitter.com/4sUxxps5Ah

— ISRO (@isro) July 5, 2023

Chandrayaan3 is expected to launch between July 13 to July 19. The total build-up cost of the spacecraft is around 615 crore and is India’s third Lunar Mission that aims at achieving a successful landing of the lander on the moon’s surface. Chandrayaan 3 is the follow–up mission to Chandrayaan 2 mission that was launched on 22 July 2019. Chandrayaan 2 mission failed due to the crash of its lander and rover on the surface of the moon during the early hours of September 6.

 Why Chandrayaan is integrated with LVM 3

Any spacecraft cannot travel to space on its own, it requires a huge amount of energy to lift it into space. Therefore rockets or Launching Vehicles like LVM 3, which have powerful propulsion are required to carry these satellites by overcoming the gravitational pull of the earth.

#ISRO

Today, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, the encapsulated assembly containing the #Chandrayaan3 module fully integrated with the LVM3 launch vehicle.

Wishing @ISRO all the best in their captivating mission to the Moon. pic.twitter.com/DbontB3Fj8

— Col Rajyavardhan Rathore (@Ra_THORe) July 5, 2023

Chandrayaan 3  mission is being carried out to study the thermophysical properties, lunar seismicity, lunar surface plasma, environment, and element composition by carrying scientific instruments like rover, and lander on the surface of the moon.

Chandrayaan 3 has undergone many tests in order to prove its capability to endure harsh and acoustic vibrations during its launch. This time the lander of the Chandrayaan 3 mission has also some modifications which include, instead of five motors, it has four motors now and various other adjustments have been done. It has a major addition to the Spectro-polarimetry Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study spectral and polarimetric measurements of Earth from the Lunar orbit.

This time ISRO has three main objectives for Chandrayaan 3 mission, the first is to do the successful landing of the lander on the surface of the moon, the second is making sure the ability of the rover to move around the lunar surface, and the third is to do the scientific study of the surface.