Chandrayaan 3 and Aditya L1 will possibly be launched in middle of 2023: ISRO chief

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman S Somanath on Wednesday said the launch of Chandrayaan-3, India’s third lunar mission, and the first solar mission Aditya L1 will possibly happen by the middle of 2023.

He was delivering the inaugural talk on “Indian Capabilities for Space and Planetary Exploration” at the 4th Indian Planetary Science Conference organised at Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) here.

“The Chandrayaan-3 craft is fully ready. It is fully integrated. Of course, there is some correction work being done, and we are building a lot of confidence in the mission through lots of simulations and tests, etc. And possibly the launch can take place by the middle of this year,” Somanath said.

He said Aditya-L1, India’s first solar mission, is going to be “a very unique solar observation capability for which instruments have already been delivered, and ISRO is in the process of integrating them in the satellite.

“I am also eagerly waiting for this (Aditya-L1) launch to happen, possibly by the middle of this year, and I am sure we will make this mission a great success,” said Somanath. He cited the example of the TRISHNA mission, designed to observe the earth’s surface in the thermal infrared domain, which has been developed by ISRO and its French counterpart CNES.

“We are also discussing a possible mission to the moon with JASA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) where the land rover will be built by them and they will launch it using a Japanese rocket,” said Somanath, who is also Secretary of the Department of Space.

He said ISRO will look at possible engagement with other agencies in exploratory missions.

“ISRO has been successful in doing significant collaborations on its space missions, and it is important to have a connection between scientific institutions across the world and ISRO in building complex missions of this nature,” Somanath said.

Talking about the ambitious “Gaganyaan” project — which envisages demonstration of human spaceflight capability by launching a crew of three to an orbit of 400 km for a three-day mission and bringing them back safely to earth — the ISRO chairman said it was going on very well.

This project gives a lot of opportunities to conduct experiments on board, with possibilities like micro-gravity, space mining, material testing, and space-based observations.

Somanath informed discussions are underway for ISRO’s proposed mission to Venus.

“Venus is a very challenging planet to explore and there is a good opportunity to launch it by 2028,” he said, adding there is a lot of interest in the science community to make use of the capability in this mission