Chandrayaan-3, scheduled to be launched from Sriharikota this week on July 14, will make "India the fourth country to land its Spacecraft on the surface of the Moon", said Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, on Sunday.

Speaking to the media, the Union Minister said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent USA visit was marked by significant Space related agreements indicating that the countries which had started their Space journey long before India are today looking up to India as an equal collaborator.

Dr Jitendra Singh said that Chandrayaan-3 is a follow-on mission of Chandrayaan-2 and is aimed to demonstrate India’s capability in soft landing and roving on the surface of the Moon or the Lunar surface. The complex mission profile, he said, required for the Spacecraft to enter the Moon’s orbit has been executed very precisely. After the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 on the surface of the Moon, the rover, which has six wheels, will come out and is expected to work for 14 days on the Moon. With the support of multiple cameras on the rover, we will be able to receive images, he said.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, the primary objectives of Chandrayaan-3 mission are threefold, a) to demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface b) to demonstrate Rover roving on the moon and c) to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

As said by Dr Jitendra Singh, the Chandrayaan 3 is a follow-up mission on Chandrayaan 2 which was launched in 2019.

The Chandrayaan 3 will demonstrate India's capability in soft landing and roving on the surface of the moon.

After the successful landing, the rover Pragyan which was also the rover for Chandrayaan 2, is expected to take pictures of the surface of the moon.

Dr. Jitendra Singh gave full credit to PM Narendra Modi for empowering the space workers and making groundbreaking decisions such as public private partnership based on the current trajectory of growth, India’s space sector is expected be a 1 Trillion US Dollar industry in next few years.

The primary objectives of Chandrayaan are

 a) to demonstrate Safe and Soft Landing on Lunar Surface

b) to demonstrate roving on the moon and

c) to conduct in-situ scientific experiments.

The minister recalled that Chandrayaan-1 which was the first of the Chandrayaan series, was famous for having discovered the presence of water on the surface of the Moon, which was a new revelation for the world. He further added that even the most premier Space agencies like the NASA were fascinated by this discovery and used the inputs for their further experiments.

The Spacecraft will use Launch Vehicle Mark-3 developed by ISRO for its launch, he added.

Dr. Jitendra added that there is a huge level of enthusiasm and excitement for the Chandrayan 3, mainly because Chandrayaan 2 did not yield the desired results.

We may recall that the Chandrayaan 2 had a lapse just about 13 minutes after Spacecraft began its descent on September 6, 2019.

There are a few changes to the Chandrayaan 3 to increase the robustness of the lander. All the modifications have been subjected to exhaustive ground tests and simulations.

 The Lander and Rover module of Chandrayaan-3 is also configured with payloads that would provide data to the scientific community on various properties of Lunar Soil and rocks including its chemical and elemental composition, said Dr Jitendra Singh.