Indian “Chandrayaan 3” landed on the moon

By Zoringer

It was launched on July 14 on an LVM 3 launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, located on the island of Sriharikota in the Bay of Bengal. India became the fourth country to make a soft landing on the Moon (after the USSR, the USA and China) and the first to land on the South Pole. Roscosmos congratulated India on the successful landing of the station on the moon.

The landing of the station was carried out at 18:02 Indian time (at 15:32 Moscow time) in the region of the unexplored South Pole of the Moon. In the last 15 minutes of its descent to the lunar surface, the lander made a critical maneuver – it moved from a horizontal position to a vertical one, turning almost 90 degrees.

The former head of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Kailasawadivu Sivan, called this stage “15 minutes of horror.”

“Chandrayaan-3” consists of three parts: an orbiter, a lander and a lunar rover. On board the landing module and the lunar rover there is equipment designed for seismic research, the study of the lunar surface and soil.

They are expected to operate in the South Pole region for one lunar day (14 Earth days).

Lunar mission "Chandrayaan-3":

1/ Satish Dhawan Space Center
2/ Lander "Vikram" 200x200x115.6 cm. 4 landing engines.
3/ Weight 1752 kg. Including moon rover 26 kg.
4/ Landing site: South Pole of the Moon.
5/ Polar orbit 100 km.
6/ The orbiter will carry the lander and rover into orbit. It will work as a communications satellite. Weight 2148 kg.
7/ Lander "Vikram"
8/ Launch vehicle "Mark-3". Solid propellant boosters.
9/ 3 steps. Total length 43.5 m.
10/ Rover "Pragyan".
11/ 90.5 x 75.0 x 39.7 cm. 6 wheels. 
12/ Duration of work: 1 lunar day (14 Earth days).

In 2019, ISRO already made an attempt to send a station to the Moon as part of the Chandrayaan-2 project. Then the station was able to enter the lunar orbit, but due to technical problems, it could not land on the surface of the satellite. The lander crashed on the lunar surface.

Posted By Zoringer

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