Chandrayaan-3 Enters Moon’s Orbit

On July 14, 2023, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched Chandrayaan-3 at 2.35 PM from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andra Pradesh. This is India’s third lunar mission. 

On August 5, 2023, ISRO announced that Chandrayaan-3 had successfully entered the moon’s orbit. This is the first step taken by Chandrayaan-3 towards achieving its goal of reaching the moon. ISRO built Chandrayaan-3 as a follow-up for Chandrayaan–2 which crashed while landing on the surface of the moon in 2019. 

According to the official page of ISRO, Chandrayaan-3 has 3 primary objectives. The first is to ensure a secure and soft landing on the moon’s surface. The vehicle consists of a Rover containing sensors and cameras to study the moon’s surface. The Rover must function like it was designed to and carry out tasks. This is the second aim of the mission. The third and final goal of Chandrayaan-3 is to execute scientific experiments on the moon’s surface, which include analysing lunar quakes (earthquakes on the moon), precisely determining the distance between the moon and the Earth, examining the moon’s surface and more.  

The lander of Chandrayaan-3, which has been named Vikram, is expected to land on the surface of the Moon on August 23 or 24.