Chandrayaan 3 to launch on July 14: All you need to know about India's third lunar mission

The Indian space agency Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is moving forward with its third moon mission, Chandrayaan 3, slated to launch on July 14 at 2:35 PM from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

ISRO on Friday, July 7, said it has completed the vehicle/rocket electrical tests successfully — the spacecraft has rolled out on the launchpad aboard the Launch Vehicle Mark-III (LVM-III).

While announcing the completion of the test, ISRO invited the general public to witness the launch of the LVM-III rocket carrying the Chandrayaan 3 spacecraft.

"Citizens are invited to witness the launch from the Launch View Gallery at SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota, by registering at: https://lvg.shar.gov.in/VSCREGISTRATION", the organisation tweeted.

Chandrayaan 3 will attempt to soft-land on the surface of the Moon in after the failed launch of Chandrayaan 2, four years ago in 2019.

With a budget of ₹615 crore, the ambitious Chandrayaan 3 aims to land a lander on the moon's surface, followed by the deployment of a rover which will conduct various experiments as well as study the moon's properties such as seismicity, plasma environment, and composition.

The third lunar mission will take the same approach as the second lunar mission, which was launched on July 22, 2019 and took 48 days to reach the moon's surface. However, the mission failed after the Vikram lunar lander crashed on Moon's surface on September 6, 2019.

Chandrayaan 1 was the first Indian lunar probe under the Chandrayaan program, launched in October 2008, it operated till August 2009.

As per a Mint report, ISRO has established three main objectives for the Chandrayaan 3 mission: 1) Successfully achieving a safe and gentle landing on the moon 2) Demonstrating the rover's ability to move around on the lunar surface 3) Conducting scientific observations directly on-site.

Chandrayaan 3 is expected to reach the moon by August 23-24, as the spacecraft could take 45-48 days and reach the moon.