Today, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched Chandrayaan-3 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.
Chandrayaan means “lunar vehicle” in Sanskrit, and the objective of Chandrayaan-3 is for its moon lander Vikram (“courage”) to land the rover Pragyan (“wisdom”) near the moon’s south pole. This is India’s third attempt to send a rocket to the moon and the second attempt to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface.
The first attempt was made by Chandrayaan-2 in 2019, but it ended with the crash landing of the lunar lander. If India succeeds in achieving a soft landing on the moon, it would become the fourth nation to do so after the United States, Russia, and China.
Sometime on August 23 or 24, Pragyan is expected to land on the moon. If everything goes as planned, the rover will then explore the surface near the moon’s south pole and conduct scientific observations of the soil, water, and other elements present there.
In the clip below, you can see the launch of Chandrayaan-3 using the Indian rocket Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM3) earlier today.
