Sriharikota (AP), July 14 (Bureau) The technically challenging soft landing of Chandryaaan-3 spacecraft in the lunar surface is planned at 5.47 p.m. on August 23, ISRO Chairman S.Somanath said on Friday. Addressing a press conference after ISRO’s heaviest launch vehicle LVM3-M4 successfully injected Chandrayaan-3, India’s third Lunar exploratory mission in the precise orbit after a majestic take off from the Second Launch Pad here, he said the spacecraft will attempt the technically challenging soft landing on lunar surface on August 23.
The injection of the spacecraft in the orbit marked its journey towards the Moon that would spread over 42 days traversing more than 3.80 lakh kms. Mr Somanath said the Chandrayaan-3’s infusion into the lunar orbit has been planned from August 1. The soft landing has been planned at 5.47 pm on August 23, he added. Meanwhile, former ISRO Chairman Dr K.Sivan, who was at the helm during the previous lunar mission Chanrayaan-2 in July 2019, too said soft landing was a challenging task and hoped that this time we will land the spacecraft successfully. He said ISRO has taken corrective measures this time after the crashlanding of Lander from the spot very close to landing. With the successful launch, the first phase of the Mission is success and we hope that this time we will successfully land the spacecraft in the lunar surface.
Meanwhile, NASA also hailed ISRO for the successful launch of Chandrayaan-3 which was inserted into the orbit. In a tweet, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said “Congratulations to @isro on the Chandrayaan-3 launch, wishing you safe travels to the Moon.” “We look forward to the scientific results to come from the mission, including NASA’s laser retroreflector array. India is demonstrating leadership on #ArtemisAccords!”, he added. Meanwhile, congratulations from across the world poured for ISRO in twitter after the successful launch of Chandryaaan-3. European Space Agency (ESA), UK Space Agency, the French Embassy in India and Australian High Commission congratulated India for the successful launch.