India to Launch Chandrayaan-3 in 2020

Good news for every Indian, that in the new year we’ll once again attempt the launch Chandrayaan, as Union minister for the department of space Jitendra Singh, has officially confirmed that Chandrayaan-3, the second lander mission to Moon will be most likely to be launched in 2020. 

India’s third moon mission launch which is scheduled after Chandrayaan-1 and -2, as the Minister said, “Next Chandrayaan-3 will most probably be launched in 2020. It will be quite economical. The orbiter is already there (the Moon’s orbit, which is fully functional). So we are going to be cutting on costs. It will carry only a lander mission”. 

Earlier the news of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) working quietly on the second lander mission has surfaced, after Vikram lander made the hard landing in the South Pole region of the Moon on September 7 is also now being confirmed by the Minister. ISRO has also sought Rs 75 crore from the Centre for the mission in addition to the existing budget.

The Minister also said, “As I had already said in the Parliament that we should not describe Chandrayaan-2 as a setback because, in the entire world’s history of space technology, there has not been a single country, which could achieve soft-landing in less than two attempts on Moon. We do not have to wait for so long as we have gained from experience of others”.

On the training of the Indian astronauts for the mission Gaganyaan in Russia, the Minister said, “They (Russia) have shortlisted candidates for training and then they will zero in on 2 or 3 candidates and then they will be put on training. The period of training is likely to vary from 18 months or two years, as it depends upon various factors like an individual’s adaptability”.

Apart from this, the Ministry is planning to launch a number of satellites in 2020 as he says, “We are going to launch a separate satellite for every government department, including the home ministry. Extra satellite applications are broadly used for different government projects. We are widely using satellite services for different government projects. Today, space applications are used in several fields like housing, railways, telemedicine, tele-education, geo-MGNREGA, for soil health card and in issuing utilization certificates for infrastructure projects in the northeast”.

He also said as the scope of ISRO programs is widening the ministry is setting up ISRO’s new commercial arm New Space India Ltd (NSIL). NSIL is going to oversee the transfer of technology to the private sector and manufacturing of the space components by the industry.