Sriharikota (AP), July 14,2023: India’s heavy lift launch vehicle LVM3-M4 on Friday successfully launched third Lunar exploratory mission Chandrayaan-3 in the intended orbit. After a 25.5 hour countdown, the 43.5 m tall launch vehicle, with a lift off mass of 642 tonnes, took off from the Second Launch Pad at 2.35 p.m from the SHAR Range.
Applause and cheers swept through mission control at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, where the ISRO engineers and scientists celebrated as they monitored the launch of the spacecraft.
Thousands of Indians cheered outside the mission control centre and waved the national flag as they watched the craft rise into the sky.
“Congratulations India. Chandrayaan-3 has started its journey towards the moon,” ISRO Director S P Somanath said shortly after the launch.
Only three other space agencies – the United States, the former Soviet Union and China – have touched down a lander on the moon’s surface.
None has landed near the lunar south pole.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is currently visiting France, tweeted that the mission was carrying the “hopes and dreams of our nation”.
The third Chandrayaan includes a two-metre-tall lander designed to deploy a rover near the lunar south pole, where it is expected to remain functional for two weeks running a series of experiments.
