India's Chandrayaan-3 Set to Land on Moon: A Key Milestone in Space Exploration

Yesterday, we mentioned that Russia was unable to surpass India as its lunar probe Luna-25 lost control and crashed after entering its landing orbit on Saturday. Luna-25 was originally scheduled for a soft landing this week, and it's unknown whether the early landing procedure was an attempt to overtake India.

India's lunar probe, Chandrayaan-3, is scheduled to land on the moon at 18:04 Indian Standard Time (IST) on August 23, 2023 (12:14 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) ).

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has published the relevant timetable on its website. If the planned procedure goes smoothly, the entire landing process will be live-streamed on YouTube. If the landing is also successful, India will become the fourth country, after the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China, to perform a soft landing on the lunar surface.

Watch the live stream here：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLA_64yz8Ss

Chandrayaan-3 Mission Overview:

Chandrayaan-3 is the successor to India's failed Chandrayaan-2, consisting of a lander named Vikram and a rover named Pragyan. Chandrayaan-2 encountered a malfunction in the final moments of its landing guidance program, leading to a crash on the lunar surface, a situation that seems to have also occurred with Russia's Luna-25.

On July 14, 2023, Chandrayaan-3 was successfully launched aboard India's heavy-lift rocket LVM3, with tracking support from the European Space Agency (ESA).

The mission's objective for Chandrayaan-3 is to land at the moon's south pole, including safely and gently landing the lander on the lunar surface, observing and demonstrating the rover's operational capability on the moon, and conducting on-site surveys and experiments on available materials.

The on-site tasks also include analyzing the composition of lunar surface materials, searching for water ice in lunar soil, analyzing the moon's impact history, and studying the evolution of the lunar atmosphere.