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If any factor regarding the lander module appears unfavourable, then the landing will be shifted to August 27, said the Space Applications Centre-ISRO about Chandrayaan-3 on Monday.
Nilesh M Desai, director of Space Applications Centre-ISRO, Ahmedabad, said that the decision regarding the landing will be taken based on the health of the lander module and the conditions on the Moon.
"On August 23, two hours before Chandrayaan-3 lands on the Moon, we will decide whether or not it will be appropriate to land it at that time based on the health of the lander module and the conditions on the Moon. In case if any factor appears to be not favourable, then we will land the module on the Moon on August 27. No problem should occur and we will be able to land the module on August 23,” Director Desai said.
ISRO chairman and secretary, department of space, S Somanath, called on Union Minister of State (independent charge) Science and Technology, Atomic Energy and Space Jitendra Singh in New Delhi on Monday and apprised him of the status and readiness of Chandrayaan-3 for the Moon landing scheduled on August 23.
The ISRO chairman briefed the minister on the health of Chandrayaan-3 and said that all systems are working perfectly and no contingencies are anticipated on Wednesday.
In the next two days, the health of Chandrayaan-3 will be continuously monitored. The final sequence of landing will be loaded two days ahead and tested out, he said.
During the meeting, Minister Jitendra Singh expressed his confidence in Chandrayaan-3 making a soft landing this time and hoped that it will script a new history of planetary exploration under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
ISRO said Chandrayaan-3 is set to land on the moon on August 23, 2023, around 18:04 hours IST.
Live telecast can be had on the ISRO website, its YouTube channel, Facebook, and public broadcaster DD National TV from 17:27 IST on August 23, 2023.
While the Chandrayaan-2 mission was only “partially successful” since the lander lost contact after a hard landing, ISRO successfully established two-way communication between the Chandrayaan-3 lander module and the still-orbiting Chandrayaan-2 orbiter.
If the landing goes off smoothly, India will become only the fourth country in the world to achieve this feat after the United States, Russia, and China, but India will be the only country in the world to land on the lunar south pole.
The primary objectives of the Chandrayaan-3 mission are threefold -- to demonstrate safe and soft landing on lunar surface; to demonstrate roving on the moon, and to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.
Chandrayaan-3’s development phase commenced in January 2020 with the launch planned some time in 2021. However, the Covid-19 pandemic brought an unforeseen delay to the mission's progress.
Chandrayaan-3 was launched on July 14 via the GSLV Mark 3 (LVM 3) heavy-lift launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.