It was a deafening roar as the LVM-3, also known as the 'Fat Boy', which is India's largest and heaviest launch vehicle successfully took off from the second launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR) in Sriharikota, at 2.35pm, carrying the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft. The LVM-3 successfully put the spacecraft in the intended orbit. This is LVM-3's third successful mission this year.
As the LVM-3 successfully carried out its tasks there were claps all around the control centre. With the Chandrayaan-3 launch successful, the next stage will be the soft landing that will happen on August 23, at 5.47pm.
The LVM-3 is the operational heavy lift launch vehicle of ISRO and has been constantly tasting success completing six consecutive successful missions. The LVM-3 has proved its capability in undertaking most complex missions such as injecting multi-satellites, mission planning to ensure safe relative distance among separated satellites through reorientation and velocity addition makeovers.
“The soft landing on the moon is not an easy task as most of the countries that have done soft landing have not been successful in their first and second attempts. It is just that we fell short of our expectations. However, we learnt from our mistakes and worked on improving them. The successful launch of Chandrayaan-3 has reiterated India's role as a leading global player in the global space arena. Now even first moving countries such as the US and Russia are also looking towards India as equal partners in the space arena,” said Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology post the successful launch of Chandrayaan-3.
S. Somanath, Chairman of ISRO said that though all the stages post the successful launch of Chandrayaan-3 are important, the next crucial stage is likely to happen on August 1, when the spacecraft will be put into moon's orbit (Lunar Orbit). “If everything goes well the Chandrayaan-3 will attempt the soft landing on the moon on August 23, at 5.47pm. Also, around 85 per cent work on the LVM-3 has been done by the industry and only 15 per cent of it was done by ISRO. We will keep doing further work on the human rating of LVM-3 before the beginning of the Gaganyaan's unmanned mission,” remarked Somanath.
Somanath also informed that “we will also be doing thermal conductivity activity and seismic study on the surface of the moon and also study the environment of the moon during the Chandrayaan-3 mission.” He said that some of the studies were unique and had not been done before by any other mission.
The lander of Chandrayaan-3 has improved capabilities as ISRO worked on it. It includes 'Lander hazard detection and avoidance cameras' that help the lander coordinate with the orbiter and mission control while descending to the Moon's surface. Unlike its predecessor, Chandrayaan-3 will have two of these cameras instead of just one.
According to the ISRO, the landing velocity of Vikram has also been increased to 3m/second from 2m/second. This ensures that even at 3m/sec, the lander will not crash or break its legs. ISRO has also made enhancements to the software of Chandrayaan-3 to increase its resilience to failures such as engine disruptions, thrust disruptions, and sensor failures. Additionally, they have removed the central or fifth engine, which was added hastily during the Chandrayaan-2 mission.