Chennai, July 13 (Agency) The 25.5 hour countdown for India’sthird Lunar mission Chandrayaan-3 tomorrow commencedat the SHAR Ranage, Sriharikota, at 1.05 p.m., on Thursday. After the Mission Readiness Review, the Launch AuthorisationBoard gave the clearance following which the countdown forthe prestigious mission began at the SDSC Centre.Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in a tweet said “LVM3 M4/Chandrayaan-3 Mission: The countdown leading tothe launch tomorrow at 14:35:17 Hrs. IST has commenced. “ISRO will be using its heaviest rocket Launch Vehicle Mark-3(LVM3-M4) to launch the integrated Chandrayaan-3 spacecraftmodule in an Elliptic Parking Orbit of size 170 x 36500 km. The 43.5 m tall launch vehicle, with a lift off mass of 642 tonswill take off from the Second Launch Pad at 2.35 p.m on Friday.
About 16 minutes after the lift off, the Chandrayaan-3 will beinjected into a 179 km Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO)from where it will begin its long journey for a safe landing androving on the lunar surface. After a more than 3.5 lakh km journey, the soft landing wasexpected to take place in the last week of August. The date (landing date) is decided when there is sunrise onthe moon. When we are landing, sunlight must be there. Sothe landing will be on August 23 or 24,” according to ISROChairman S.Somanath. If the landing does not take place as planned on August 23or 24, then ISRO will wait for another month to make a landingattempt in September. “The lander and the rover will stay on the moon for 14 daysuntil sunlight is there. When there is no sunlight, a smallsolar panel which is on the rover will generate power tocharge the battery for the next 14 days until light comes”, he had said.