Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Chief K Sivan announced India's third lunar mission, Chandrayaan-3 which has been approved by the government is on and is slated to launch in 2021.
Sivan said that the Chandrayaan-3's configuration willbe similar to that of its predecessor, the Chandrayaan-2 which means that theChandrayaan-3 will also have a lander and a rover with a propulsion module.
Addressing a press conference, Sivan said that allactivities related to the third lunar mission are going on smoothly and addedthat the Chandrayaan-3 will not affect other satellite programs.
Sivan also mentioned that apart from Chandrayaan-3,there will be more than space 25 missions this year.
Talking about the landing location of the Chandrayaan-3,Sivan said that ISRO is planning for landing at the same location as theChandrayaan-2, the lander of which crash-landed on the moon surface justmoments before it was supposed to soft-land.
The ISRO chief further stated that the cost of the landerand rover of the third lunar mission will be approximately Rs. 250 crore addingthat the entire cost of the mission, however, will be Rs. 250 plus 365 crores.
The total cost of the Chandrayaan-2 mission was Rs.960 crores.
He also said that the preparations for the Gaganyaanmission are going on simultaneously with the Chandrayaan-3 mission. Gaganyaanis an Indian crewed orbital spacecraft that is intended to send 3 astronauts tospace for a minimum of seven days by 2022, as part of the Indian HumanSpacelift Programme.
